PICEA, OR THE SILVER THIS. 57 



with a short aclnaciform wing, having a very narrow curved 

 crest at the base. 



A fine tree, growing from 120 to 140 feet high, found on the 

 sacred Mountain Fusi-Yama, in the province of Surunga, on 

 the Island of Nippon, in Japan. 



It looks like a small-coned Silver Fir, but is essentially dif- 

 ferent from that or any other Silver Fir, and has been named 

 after Mr, J. G. Veitch, a plant collector in Japan, who sent 

 seeds of it to England in 1861. 



Page 160. 

 PicEA Webbtana, Loudon, Captain Webb's Indian Silver Fir. 



This is the Black Fir, found so abundantly by Dr. Griffith 

 on the Bhotan Mountains, at an elevation of from 11,000 to 

 12,500 feet, where it forms a lofty tabular or flat-headed tree, 

 with the foliage of the deepest green on the upper surface, but 

 quite silvery beneath. It is called " Rai-Sulla " (fragrant Fir), 

 and " Gobrea-Sulla" (fragrant or Indigo Fir), by the Gork- 

 halees, on account of an indigo or purple pigment being ex- 

 tracted from the young cones. On the Choor Mountains the 

 inhabitants call it " Kilounta," which is a Sanscrit compound 

 for end of the Pine tree, and denotes the fir-cone, so conspicuous 

 in this species, on account of its beautiful purple or violet 

 colour. In Kooloo, and on the Chumbra range, it is styled 

 " Tos," and forms extensive forests, where, notwithstanding the 

 whiteness of the under surface of its leaves, the general effect 

 of the Himalayan Silver Fir is exceeding dark and gloomy — 

 more even than the Indian Cypress (Cupressus torulosa), which 

 from a distance it a good deal resembles ; but still the thorough- 

 going black Pindrow Fir, with its tall columnar outline and 

 boughs, much less bushy or pendulous, and its longer leaves, 

 must be pronounced the handsomest tree of the two. 



The Indian Silver Fir is the most abundant one in Sikkim, 

 and forms vast forests in Bhotan, at elevations from 11,000 

 to 12,000 feet. In Japan it is called "Uro-Siro" (leaves white 

 beneath), and "Sjura-momi'^ (white, or Silver Fir). 



