PINACEAE. — ABIES 47 



2091) ; Ching-chi Hsien, summit of Fei-yiieh-ling, alt. 3000 m., October 

 1908 (No. 2095); same locality, August and October 1904 (Veitch 

 Exped. No. 3020, seed No. 1570) ; Mupin, forests, alt. 3300 m., October 

 1908 (No. 2094). 



This is the tallest of all the Chinese species of Abies. It is characterized by its 

 shining yellowish and later pale grey branchlets, its pedunculate cones which are 

 grey-brown when ripe and have very small obovate-cuncate bracts, and relatively 

 thin and large cone-scales, and by its ascending-spreading, usually pungent, fiat 

 leaves with midribs very rarely impressed above, commonly stomatiferous on both 

 surfaces and either pale green or glaucous on the underside. In transverse section 

 the resin-ducts are lateral and usually sub-epidermal; the epidermis is very thick- 

 walled and on the ventral side is subtended by a hypodermal layer and this 

 by a few scattered sclerotic cells. On the dorsal side the hypodermal layer is not 

 continuous, occurring beneath the midrib and at the margins only. The endo- 

 dermis is unusually well defined and is composed of large roundish-oval cells. 



This new species is closely related to A. chensiensis Van Tieghem, which has 

 longer leaves twisted to form one plane, very unequal in length on the same shoot, 

 always green on both surfaces and rarely if ever pungent, and subsessile cones 

 with much larger, nearly orbicular bracts. 



Masters refers our No. 3020 to A. firma Siebold & Zuccarini^ which is 

 easily distinguished by its winter-buds, which are prominent, acutish and scarcely 

 if at all resinous, by its dark grey, sometimes reddish, two- or three-year old 

 shoots, its very much longer cones with narrowly cimeate bracts furnished with 

 a long lanceolate cuspis which is exserted, and by its broader cone-scales and 

 much larger seeds. There are slight differences in the leaves and A. firma 

 usually has four resin-ducts, two median and two lateral, and sclerotic cells 

 scattered in the parenchyma. This herbarium specimens show; other differences 

 doubtless would appear, could living trees of the two species be examined growing 

 side by side. 



In open country A . Beissneriana develops moderately wide-spreading branches 

 and forms a rather round or flat-headed tree of medium height. In the forests 

 the branches are short, slender and the tree has a very spire-like appearance 

 towering high above every other tree in the forest. 



This Silver Fir is the P'ao-sha of the Chinese and the wood is soft and of very 

 little value. The vernacular name signifies " worthless Fir " and has reference 

 to the inferior quality of the wood. Occasionally it is spoken of as Lien-sha, a 

 name more properly applied to A. Delavayi Franchet, but these common names 

 are in some districts interchangeable and are often indiscriminately used. 



Pictures of this tree will be found under Nos. 181, 182, 189, 267 of the collec- 

 tion of Wilson's photographs and also in his Vegetation of Western China, Nos. 

 91-93. 



We take pleasure in associating with this stately Silver Fir the name of Mr. L. 

 Beissner, author of the Handhuch der N adelholzkunde, and one of the first au- 

 thorities on cultivated Conifers. 



1 It is highly improbable that this Japanese species occurs in China proper. 

 The specimens from Yunnan referred to this species by Kanitz (in Noven. Gyiijit. 

 Szechenyi, II. 848 {PI. Enum. 64) [1891]) probably belong to A. Delavayi Franchet. 

 Our No. 1895 referred to A. firma by Masters (in Jour. Bot. XLI. 270 [1903]) 

 belongs to A. Fargesii Franchet. In the Jour. Linn. Soc. XXVI. 557 (1902), 

 Masters reduces A. chensiensis Van Tieghem to A. firma. 



