344 A SYNOPSIS OF THE AMERICAN FIRS. 
the subalpine forests, and, at least in Colorado, coming up almost to the timber line, but never alone constituting for- 
ests. It isa larger tree than balsamea, often over 2 feet in diameter and 60-100 feet high, with thin, pale whitish, 
smooth bark, which only in very old trees becomes cracked and ashy-gray ; timber so poor and soft that in some parts 
of the Rocky Mountains it is called pumpkin pine. Leaves like to those of balsamea, notched on sterile and pointed on 
fertile branches ; hypoderm considerable, though interrupted on upper surface, crowded on ‘edges and keel. Cones 
retuse, brown-purple, 2~3$ inches long, 1-1} inches in diameter, the smaller ones near the timber line. Scales rounded 
or almost square, often almost as high as broad, similar in their proportions to those of balsamea, but larger ; bracts 
short, emarginate, mucronate ; seeds, including the wing, over 1 inch long, the latter nearly twice as long as it is 
wide. 
Var. FALLAX has the resin-ducts of this species, but the foliage almost of concolor ; leaves sometimes 1} or even 
1? inches long, mostly obtuse, and covered with stomata above, glaucous when young. — Dr. New oui 8 ee in 
the Herb. Acgeloat: Dep. Washington, collected on the higher tops of the Cascades, oa of the Colu 
River, and described * by him as A. amabilis in Pac. R. Rep. 6, bot. 51, belongs here ; the loose sabe) 03 [598 (6) ] 
lines wide, 11 high, with pointed bracts, seed with narrow wings, as in the species, but larger) brought hon 
indicate a large cone, such as he describes as 6 inches long and 2} thick. §S. Watson and lately A. L. Siler collected 
a similar form on the Wahsatch Mountains; but the loose broad scales sent by the former may possibly belong to con- 
color, which grows in the same region. The mere fragments of this interesting form, seen by me, do not permit me to 
give more than the above indications. 
This species has troubled botanists considerably. It is probable that Hooker’s lasiocarpa belongs here, as a 
branchlet together with a few scales, preserved under that name in the Kew Herbarium, seems to point out; but the 
description in the Flor. B. A., which mentions the leaves as the longest of any N. A. Abies, refers perhaps to something 
else, and has certainly given cause for the application of the name to the long-leaved forms of concolor in the English 
nurseries. Then, in 1863, A. Murray distinguished a form of this species, collected by Lyall in British Columbia and 
on the Upper Columbia River, as 4. bifolia, recognizing the different forms of foliage, but misapplying the scientific 
name. Pe aig the same time specimens and seeds from Colorado were distributed by Dr. Parry and by E. Hall as 
A. grandis, and may now be cultivated as such in Europe. That Parlatore and others have taken it for amabilis has 
sae “aie stated. 
4, A. GRANDIS (Pinus, Douglas mss., 1830, and in Bot. Mag. Comp. 2, 147, 1836; Parl. 1. c. 427), Lindl. Pen. 
Cyc. n. 3 (1833), Link, etc. — This is one of the tallest firs known and therefore properly named grandis by Douglas, 
a tree up to 200 and frequently 240 (Nuttall) or even 300 feet high (E. Hall), but in diameter less than some others, 
perhaps not more than 4 feet ; bark smooth and brownish (Nuttall) ; wood white, soft and coarse ; a native of the lit- 
toral regions of the northwest coast, from Cape Mendocino in California, Bolander, Vasey, which seems to be the southern 
limit of several northern trees, to the British Possessions (in Vancouver Island as A. Gordoniana Carr.) at least as far 
north as Fraser’s River, Jeffrey, Lyall. But, common and valuable as this timber tree is in Oregon, very little informa- 
tion about it has reached us, and its cones seem to be almost unknown in collections. — The foliage is glossy green, 
without stomata above, and with 2 well-marked white bands, each of 7-10 rows below ; leaves mostly 1-2 inches long, 
more markedly distichous, at least in the sterile branchlets, than in most other of our species, strongly grooved and 
notched ; eres on the fertile branchlets similar but rather shorter, and occasionally rounded at tip. The hypoderm 
cells are scattered all over the upper surface of the leaf, forming an interrupted stratum under the epidermis ; on the 
sides and oa they are, mostly, only moderately developed. Cones cylindric, 2-4 inches long, with broad scales 
(nearly twice as broad as they are high), and short, bilobed or 2-auriculate bracts, with or without a short mucro. 
Seeds with a broad, very oblique wing, almost as broad as it is long. 
This species is cultivated in European gardens from Douglas’s seeds, sent home forty-five years ago ; 
the Edinburgh Bot. Garden under its proper name, in Dropmore Park as A. amabilis ; but, though now over [599 (7 (7)] 
forty years old, seems not to have coned yet. In the same establishments another fir is cultivated, in Edin 
burgh as amabilis, in Dropmore as grandis, thus continuing the confusion which has existed from the first in regard to 
these names. I suspect this to be the real amabilis of Douglas, but take it for a variety of grandis, which — Douglas’s 
name ae doubtful — may be designated as — 
ar. DENSIFOLIA: Foliage denser than in the species, clustered on the upper side of the branches like that of 
Nordmanniana ; leaves dark glossy green above, with 2 very ome white bands below ; hypoderm cells more 
crowded under the upper surface of the leaf; cones and seeds the same. — Apparently a mountain form of grandis, 
from the base of Mount Hood, Z. Hall, mixed with subalpina, to British Columbia, Lyall. Douglas found his amabilis 
in September, 1825, “on the mountains immediately south of the Grand Rapids of the Columbia,” together with A. 
4 His description of the foliage, however, seems to refer to what I call below A. grandis var. densifolia. Dr. N. may have 
mixed both forms, an unfortunate mishap which is by no means rare in such collections, mostly made in haste and o 
under unfavorable circumstances. 
