CONIFERS 



57 



Cones purple, green, or yellow. 



Bracts of the cone-scales short-pointed ; leaves more or less erect by the twist at 

 their base, on fertile branches often falcate, thickened and keeled above. 



<;. A. concolor (F, G, H). 



Bracts of the cone-scales produced into elongated rigid, flat tips many times longer 

 than the obtusely pointed scales ; leaves acuminate, dark yellow-green above, 

 white below, similar on sterile and fertile branches; winter-buds large, with thin 

 loosely imbricated scales. 7. A. venusta (G). 



Leaves often 4-sided, blue-green, usually glaucous, with stomata on all surfaces, bluntly 

 pointed or acute, incurved and crowded on fertile branches ; cones purple. 

 Leaves of sterile branches flattened and distinctly grooved above. 



Bracts of the cone-scales rounded and fimbriate above, long-pointed, incurved, light 

 green, much longer than and covering their scales. 8. A. nobilis (G). 



Leaves of sterile branches 4-sided. 



Bracts of the cone-scales acute or acuminate or rounded above, with slender tips 

 shorter or longer than their scales. 9. A. magiiifica (G). 



1. Leaves Jlat. 



* Leaves dark green. 

 -* Cones purple. 



1. Abies Fraseri, Poir, Balsam Fir. She Balsam. 



Leaves obtusely short-pointed or occasionally slightly emarginate at the apex, 

 dark green and lustrous on the upper surface, marked on the lower surface by 



wide bands of 8-12 rows of stomata, ^' to nearly 1' long, about T y wide. Flowers : 

 staminate yellow tinged with red; pistillate with scales rounded above, much broader 

 than long and shorter than their oblong pale yellow-green bracts rounded at the 

 broad apex terminating in a slender elongated tip. Fruit oblong-ovate or nearly 

 oval, rounded at the somewhat narrowed apex, dark purple, pubertilous, about 2^' 

 long, with scales twice as wide as long, at maturity nearly half covered by their pale 

 yellow-green reflexed bracts; seeds |' long, with dark lustrous wings much ex- 

 panded aind very oblique at the apex. 



A tree, usually 30-40 and rarely 70 high, with a trunk occasionally 2 in diame- 

 ter, and rather rigid branches forming an open symmetrical pyramid and often dis- 



