A SYNOPSIS OF THE AMERICAN FIRS. 345 
nobilis ; but the cone sent home by him (at that time or later?) was a much larger one, 5-6 inches long, 24-3 thick, 
with uabeneee bracts ; from its seeds the above-mentioned trees are said to have sprung. Unfortunately the large 
one, figured by Lambe as grandis, and by Loudon and in Pinet. Woburn. as amabilis, and formerly preserved in 
the collection of the London Horticultural Society, seems to have been = since the sale of that collection ; it may 
have been similar to Newberry’s cone of fallax, described above. 
The following species have been claimed for amabilis: A. subalpina is called so by Parlatore 1. c., who seemed to 
rely on its native Sauer and on its leaves (or many of them) being entire, but overlooks other characters.— Var. fal- 
lax of that species, taken for amabilis by Newberry, has a large cone and similar bracts, but is not in cultivation, as 
Douglas’s tree is supposed to be. — A. magnifica, the amabilis of the Californian botanists, has the large cones, the 
eggs a ts, and the entire leaves, claimed for amabilis; but the foliage is quite different, and so is its locality. 
—A.n : Prof. McNab finds the leaves of the type specimen of amabilis in Herb. Kew identical with nobilis leaves; 
I have pasate the same leaves and take them with scarcely a doubt for those of a form of grandis. — A. concolor has 
been named amabilis in some gardens. — Locally the “ yellow fir” of Oregon, as Pseudotsuga Douglasii is oon called, 
seems to have been also taken for amabilis, perhaps on account of its entire leaves.— There remains only the tree 
which I have designated as A. grandis var. densiflora, which, together with grandis itself, is the only western Abies 
(nobilis excepted) intel has sprung from Douglas’s 4 Oxia seeds. No subalpina, magnifica or concolor has been in cul- 
tivation longer than the modern knowledge of California extends back and the influx of English seed-collectors, begin- 
ning with Jeffrey in 1851. None of these species, then, can be Douglas’s amabilis, but every consideration points to the 
tree penser under that name in Edinburgh. Prof. McNab has come to the same aceon n, but differs 
from me in considering it a distinct species. Further exploration of the Cascade Mountains between the [600 (8)] 
Columbia Rive rer and oon probably the least known mountain region of the Pacific ei will, it is hoped, 
clear Es these doubts 
. A. concoLor (Pinus, Engelm. in Herb. 1848; Parlat. 1. ¢. 426) Lindl. in Gordon Pin. 155, 1858. Long 
ice pes from Fendler’s New Mexican specimens No. 828, coll. 1847, this elegant species now proves to be wide 
spread over the southern Rocky Mountains, from Pike’s Peak in Colorado, where it occurs only in the valleys of the 
foothills, to the higher mountains of New Mexico, the southern parts of Utah, and the northern of Arizona, and 
throughout the Californian sierras, at an elevation of 3-7,000 feet, to Mount Shasta ; whether in the southern Cascades, 
is not known. Itis A. Lowiana, Gord. Suppl. 53; A. grandis of the Californian botanists ; A. lasiocurpa of the nur- 
series (so called from its long leaves, which constitute a character of the original lasiocarpa) ; A. amabilis of some 
establishments (because of the large cones and obtuse leaves) ; A. Parsoniana of the gardens. It is a stately tree, in 
California up to 150 feet high, 3-5 feet in diameter, and 200-300 years old (Lemmon) ; in the Rocky Mountains not 
quite so large. — The bark is pale in young trees, but darker than in subalpina, and soon becomes rough and of an ash- 
gray color, in old trees often several inches thick and deeply fissured. The wood is more valuable than that of subal- 
pina, perhaps equal to that of grandis, but much less so than the wood of magnifica. The tree is always readily 
snpebled by its pale glaucous foliage, which at last gets dull green, and by the length of the leaves of the young 
trees, 2-2} and sometimes even 3 inches long — longer than in any other of our firs. Only such leaves or those of the 
lower branches of old trees are notched at the end; on the older trees they are shorter, very broad, convex above, 
usually faleate, and always obtuse; on the flowering branches they hecome often quite thick, keeled above, and almost 
quadrangular. On older trees stomata cover the upper surface ; in young ones they are usually confined to the middle 
line of the leaf, but are never absent. Hypoderm cells are interruptedly distributed over the upper surface. Cones 
oblong, 2-4 or even 5 inches long, retuse, or in some trees short-pointed; usually apple-green before full maturity, but, : 
least in Colorado, varying to different shades of brown or purple.’ The scales are very broad in n proportion ; the brac 
short, rounded, or truncate, or sometimes emarginate, with, or rarely without a short mucro; wing of seed Cue as 
wide as it is long ; cotyledons 5-7, usually 6. 
A. RELIGIOSA (Pinus, HBK. N. Gen. Sp. 2, 5, 1817; Parl. 1. ¢. 420), Schlecht. Linnea 5, 77, 1830. — On 
the higher eae in Mexico, extending to Guatemala. A tall tree with linear, acute, or rarely obtuse, dark, 
glossy 5 ee ; cones oval-oblong, 3-5 inches long, 14-2 thick; bracts more or less protruding, acute or cus- [601 (9)] 
pidate ; ae one-third wider sae they are high ; seed-wings longer than wide; cotyledons 5.— A. hirtella 
(Pinus, HBK. ib.) is scarcely a variety. 
7. A. BRAcTEATA (Pinus, Don in Trans. Linn, Soc. 17, 443, 1837 ; Parl. 1. ¢. 419), Nutt. Sylv. 3, 137, 1849, 
P. venusta, Dougl. Bot. Mag. Comp. 2, 152, 1836. — A well-marked, but little known tree, of very limited geographical 
distribution, being confined, as far as known, to the Santa Lucia Mountains in Southern California, though other 
localities in different parts of California are attributed to it by seed dealers, and having been gathered only by very 
5 The color of the cones is often considered as of specific value, but in the Black Forest of Germany all the shades between 
light green and deep purple may be seen on the cones of 4. — just as in our concolor in Colorado. 
