30 CHINESE ECONOMIC TREES 



This fir forms pure stands and attains the highest altitude of any 

 Chinese fir. It is easily distinguished by its purplish Jjark which peels 

 off in thin strips. The wood is of good quality, used by the Tibetans 

 for the construction of their houses. 



Abies chensiensis Van Tieghem. 



Tree 15-40 m. tall. Shoots pale yellow-gray. The leaves are long, 

 shiny green, arranged in one plane, blunt or slightly notched at the apex, 

 very unequal in length on the same shoot, pubescent. Cones 8-10 cm. 

 long, ovoid cylindric, pale brown, with larger thin^scales. Seeds obovoid, 

 1 cm. long, wing about 2.5 em. long. 



W. Hupeh and Shensi. 



This tree is comparatively rare. The cone with brownish and broad, 

 thin scales is very distinctive. 



Abies beisneriana Rehder and Wilson. 



Tree to 60 m. tall with gray-brown fissured bark and pale gray 

 branchlets. Leaves ascending, flat, sharp pointed, the midrib slightly 

 •depressed above, pale green and glaucous below. Cones purplish when 

 young, later gray-brown, small, 5-8 cm. long; scales thin and broad. 



W. China. 



The wood is soft and poor in quality. This may be only a form of 

 A. chensieims. 



CUNNINGHAMIA. 



Evergreen trees with whorled or irregular branches, and whorled or 

 nearly opposite branchlets. Leaves linear, lanceolate, acuminate, rigid, 

 more or less curved, feharply and minutely serrate, dark green above, 

 pale green, with 2 stomatiferous bands below, narrowed at the base, 

 densely and spirally arranged on the shoot, though appearing in 2 ranks 

 owing to the twisting of their base. Flowers monoecious, clustered at the 

 *nds of the branches. The staminate flowers cylindrical, surrounded at 

 the base by several imbricated scalee, each flower composed of numerous 

 spirally arranged stamens, each bearing 3 pendent, 1 -celled anthers at 

 the lower margin of an ovate, serrulate, scale-like connective. Pistillate 

 flower globose, composed of imbricated scales, of which only the upper 



