Volume 8 December 27, 191 2 



MUHLENBERGIA 



THE CALIFORNIA WHITE FIR libra 



By a. a. Heller ^^^^^ 



Abies Lowiana Murray, Syn. Var. Conif. 27. 1850. Qakoi 



This fir is commonly included under Abies concolor^ and 

 may not be distinct. Sudworth, in Poorest Trees of the Pacific 

 Slope 117, says: "The long maintained Abies lowiana Murray 

 (cultivated in England, where it was first described), the Abies 

 concolor lozviana of American authors, is a form of the while fir 

 distinguished mainly by the length of its leaves." 



Britton, in North American Trees 79, notes that "Low's fir, 

 Abies Lozviana A. Murray, which occurs in the region of Mt. 

 Shasta and southward in California, is considered by some a dis- 

 tinct species; its leaves are darker green and the cones chestnut 

 brown." 



Lemmon, in Third Biennial Report of the California State 

 Board of Forestry 148-149, maintains A. Lowiana as distinct, 

 but offers very little in the way of proof except that concolorh^s, 

 paler leaves. On page 138 he puts Lowiana under "leaves 

 twisted at base," and cojtcolor under "leaves not twisted at base." 

 If this held good it should have considerable weight, but a spe- 

 cimen now before me, collected in the Mogollon mountains, New 

 Mexico, exidently from a young tree, or at least a lower branch, 

 has a slight twist to the leaves. The leaves on the lower 

 branches, especially of young trees of A. Lowiana, are much 

 less twisted than are those on the old fruiting branches of the 

 upper part of the tree. The leaves of the New Mexican tree 

 are much paler than are those of our Nevadan trees, are thinnrr, 

 more pointed, flat on both sides, with indistinct lines or chan- 

 nels. Leaves from tlir lower branchfs of trees near Rriio are 



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