PINACEAE. ABIES MARIESII 59 



umbellata growing with the type and laden with flowers. The young cone is green 

 and retains this color until it is ripe, when it changes to pale gray-brown. 



If Mayr's figures of his A. umbellata and of A. homolepis be compared, it will 

 appear that the bracts are of different shape and the cone-scale and seed are smaller 

 in A. homolepis. These differences, however, are not constant, as a careful com- 

 parison between actual cones of the variety and type proves. 



That individual trees of a species of Abies, which normally has purple or violet- 

 colored cones, produce green-colored cones is known in A. concolor Lindl. & Gord., 

 A. Veitchii Lindl. and other species. This phenomenon of viridescence is analo- 

 gous to albinism in ordinary flowering plants. 



This Fir was discovered by Dr. H. Mayr presumably in 1889, and this Arbore- 

 tum received seeds from him on June 11, 1891. Trees raised from these seeds have 

 grown more rapidly than those of any other Fir and our largest are about 11 m. 

 tall. They produced cones in 1914 and a tree of the same origin has also borne 

 cones in the Hunnewell Pinetum. As they grow in this Arboretum the trees of 

 var. umbellata are somewhat less densely branched, the branches are slightly 

 ascending and the leaves a more yellowish green than those of the type species. 



In 1892, in Yokohama, Professor Sargent purchased some seeds under the name 

 of Abies firma. Many trees raised from these seeds are growing in this Arboretum 

 and in habit and appearance are identical with those of the variety umbellata, 

 raised from Mayr's seeds. In this connection it may be of interest to record that in 

 Japan I showed cones of variety umbellata to a man who lives on the lower slopes 

 of the Yatsuga-dake and who makes a business of collecting seeds of Larix Kaemp- 

 feri Sarg. and of other conifers. He at once declared them to be the cones of the 

 Momi (A. firma S. & Z.) and added that a few trees grew near his home. Ques- 

 tioned as to his reason for considering them to have come from the Momi, he 

 pointed to the color of the cones. 



ABIES MARIESII Mast. 



PLATES XL AND XLI 



ABIES MARIESII Masters in Gard. Chron. n. ser. XII. 788, fig. 129 (1879) ; in 

 Jour. Linn. Soc. XVIII. 519, fig. 17, 18 (1881). Mayr, Monog. Abiet. Jap. 40, t. 2, 

 fig. 5 (1890). Sargent, Forest Fl. Jap. 82 (1894). Shirasawa, Icon. Ess. For. 

 Jap. II. t. 4, fig. 15-28 (1900). Matsumura, Ind. PI. Jap. II. pt. 1, 5 (1905). 

 Elwes & Henry, Trees Gr. Brit. & Irel. IV. 771 (1909). Clinton-Baker, III. 

 Conif. II. 18, t. (1909). 



Pinus mariesii Voss in Mitt. Deutsch. Dendr. Ges. XVI. 94 (1907). 



This is the alpine Fir of central Japan and the only species known in a wild state 

 in Hondo north of the Nikko region. The most southern station where I saw this 

 Fir was on Mt. Ontake, in Shinano province, where above 2600 m. it is common as 

 a small tree or bush and grows with Tsuga diver sifolia Mast., Pinus pumila 

 Regel and Juniperus communis, var. nipponica Wils. From here northward it 

 probably occurs on all the high mountains. It is common on and near the summit 

 of Yatsuga-dake on the borders of Kai and Shiriano provinces. On Nantai-san 

 in the Nikko region, in the form of small trees or scrub, it covers large areas above 

 2400 m., and on the Onsenga-dake beyond Yumoto it forms with Abies Veitchii 

 Lindl. pure woods, the trees being from 16 to 20 m. tall. Immediately over the 



