ABIES, OR SPRUCE FIRS. 11 



a dark glossy giccn, and channelled along the mid rib on the 

 upper surface, and with two sunken, silvery white, or glaucous 

 bands below, between the thickened mid-rib and reflected 

 margins, both of which are of a bright, glossy green, and 

 tapering into a short, stout, more or less twisted footstalk in- 

 serted in a little shallow, but somewhat elevated circular socket 

 at their base. JBitds, few, scattered along the upper part of the 

 shoots, and placed singly at the points ; bluntly oval, and covered 

 externally with broad, ciliated, or fringed scales of a dark brown 

 colour, and free from resinous matter, branches, rather nume- 

 rous and irregularly placed along the main stem, spreading, and 

 with the points somewhat elevated ; leading shoots, long, rather 

 stout and twig-like ; branchlets few, rather long, straight, and 

 more or less in two rows, placed somewhat obliquely along the 

 principal branches, those of the weaker ones being a little 

 declining, and jointed at the junction of each successive growth. 

 Bark, on the younger parts smooth, ashy-gray, and furnished 

 with numerous blisters filled with resinous matter, similar to 

 that on the Douglas Fir. Cones, unknown. 



This very remarkable kind was first observed by Mr. Standish 

 in his Nursery at Bagshot, growing amongst some seedling 

 Abies Douglasii raised from English saved seed, gathered from 

 a Douglas Fir growing in close proximity to some large 

 Silver Firs. 



The original plant, which is now (1861) some 10 or 12 feet 

 high, and about as many years old, has quite the habit and 

 general outline of Abies Douglasii, and of which it appears to 

 be, either an accidental seedling variety, or probably a hybrid 

 between that kind and the Silver Fir (Picea pectinata), as its 

 general appearance and history would seem to indicate. 



It is a fine and distinct kind, on account of its large, dark, 

 glossy green foliage, which is quite silvery below, and as large 

 as those of the common Yew. The original tree is quite hardy, 

 not being in the least injured by the late severe winter of 1860-1, 

 although in an open and fully exposed situation in the Royal 

 Nursery, at Bagshot. 



