692 CXIV. CONIFERS [Abies 



cylindric, scales thin, deciduous, leaving a woody axis, supporting scale free 

 under the ovuliferous scale and sometimes produced beyond it. Species about 

 20, Northern temperate and Arctic zone. 



1. A. Pindrow, Spach ; Royle 111. t. 86 ; Collett, Simla Flora 488, Fig. 161 ; 

 Gamble, Ind. Tirnb. ed. ii. 719 ; Nicholson, Dictionary of Gardening, i. 2. The 

 Himalayan loio level Silver fir. Vern. Paludar, Haz ; Be~war, Kagan ; KacJial, 

 Kunch valley ; Rai, Chamba ; Tos, Kulu ; Span, Krok, Kunawar ; Pindrau, 

 Hattu ; Morinda, Jaunsar. 



A tall tree, attaining 250 ft. under favourable conditions, with a dense 

 cylindric crown of dark-green foliage, bark smooth on young stems, greyish- 

 brown, deeply cleft in vertical fissures, when old. L. distichous, 2-3 in. long, 

 apex with two sharp teeth, underside with two faint lines on either side of 

 the raised midrib, upper side dark green shining. Male catkins axillary, 

 numerous, i-f in. long. Cones cylindric, 4-7 in. long, 1|- 3 in. diam., dark 

 purple when ripe, scales obovate, edge rounded, thin. Seeds -i— J in., wing 

 twice as long. 



Kuram valley 8-11,000 ft. Ckitral. Outer Himalaya, 8-10,000 ft., eastwards as far 

 as Nepal. Fl. April, May. Fr. autumn of the same year. As shade-enduring as 

 Abies pectinata, the Silver Fir of Europe. 



2. A. Webbiana, Lindl.; Gamble, Ind. Timb. ed. ii. 718; Nicholson, Diet, of Gard. i. 2. 

 The high level Silver fir. North- West Himalaya 10-14,000 ft., often with the Birch 

 and Rhododendron campanulatum. Usually stunted and gnarled, 1. all round the 

 branchlets, f-1 in. long on raised rough, prominent leaf -cushions, emarginate, cones 

 shorter and thicker than 1. 



3. The East Himalayan Silver Fir. Vern. Q-obre Salla, Nep. ; Dunshing, Bhntia. 

 Sikkim 10-13,000 ft. on the Singalila range, in the Chumbi valley and in Bhutan 

 8,000-12,500 ft. {Abies densa, Griff., Notulse iv. 19). A tall gregarious tree, forming 

 dense forests, 1. crowded, more or less distichous, 1-2 in. long, refuse or emarginate, 

 underside silvery-glaucous on either side of the raised midrib, catkins purple before 

 opening (G. Rogers), cones cylindric, bracts long-acuminate in a young state, protrud- 

 ing beyond the scales, scales broader than in A. Pindrow. This form might be called 

 by the name given by Griffith to the Bhutan tree, if further study on the spot should show 

 it to deserve specific rank. 



I doubt whether the three Himalayan Silver firs here enumerated should be regarded 

 as distinct species. The eastern form I have kept separate at the suggestion of 

 Frofessor Heinrich Mayr of Munich, who visited the North-West Himalaya and 

 Sikkim in 1887. As regards the 2 western forms my own experience is to the effect 

 that, as you ascend to the higher ranges, the low level long-leaved form, with a 

 tall trunk and a dense cylindric crown, gradually changes into the stunted tree 

 with spreading branches and short leaves of the high level form. I have never 

 seen the two growing together. The high level spruce of the Alps is analogous, it is 

 a stunted tree with stiff branches and shorter leaves than the low level spruce, yet 

 both are justly regarded as one species. 



There is, however, this remarkable fact, that hitherto the seed of the two Silver firs 

 of the Western Himalaya has come true, whenever cultivated in England and Ireland, 

 and hence gardeners and arboriculturists in this country regard them as distinct 

 species, in the same way as the three Cedars, C. Deodar a, hibani and atlantica are 

 regarded as distinct species. In his Flora of British India v. 653, Sir Joseph Hooker 

 calls the Himalayan Cedar : 0. Libani, var Deodara. In this case I venture to think 

 that it is more consistent to abide by the old-established practice and to regard the 3 

 Cedars as distinct species. They most probably are local forms of a tree, which in 

 remote ages, when the climate of the Mediterranean region and Western Asia was 

 moist and cool, extended from the Atlas to the Himalaya, but they have been sepa- 

 rated so long that they have acquired distinct though not very important characters. 

 In deference to Mr. Gamble and to English arboriculturists, I have in this Book 

 separated the 2 West Himalayan Silver firs, but I wish it to be distinctly understood 

 that their case is quite different from that of the 3 Cedars. Seeds of the high level 

 A. Webbiana should be cultivated in Jaunsar to see whether there also the tree comes 

 true from seed. 



4. PICEA, Link ; Fl. Brit. Ind. v. 653. 



Species 12, Northern temperate and arctic zone. 



P. Morinda, Link; Collett, Simla Fl. 487, fig. 160.— Syn. Abies 

 Smithiana, Forbes ; Brandis, F. Fl. 525 ; Pinus Smithiana, "Wall. PL As. 



