SILVER FIRS. 203 



but little changed in appearance or colour from the ordinary 

 leaves ; the lateral lobes are very short, and extend very little 

 beyond the end of the scales. Seeds wedge-shaped, soft, and 

 angular, with rather short, but broad, membranaceous wings. 



Trunk very slender, but as straight as an arrow ; with the 

 upper third of the tree frequently only clothed with branches, 

 and giving it the appearance of an elongated pyramid or cone. 



A. tall, slender tree, growing 120 feet high, but only two 

 or three feet in diameter, first discovered by Douglas, on the 

 mountains along the Columbia River, and afterwards by Dr. 

 Coulter and Hartweg, on the sea range of Santa Lucia, in 

 Upper California, at an elevation of from 2500 to 3000 feet 

 above the sea. 



It is quite hardy, but suffers very much in its young growth 

 from late spring frosts. 



No. 5. PiCEA Cephaionica, Lovdon, the Mount Enos Fir. 

 Syn. Abies Luscombeana, Loudon. 

 „ „ Cephaionica, Loudon. 

 „ Pinus Cephaionica, Endlicher. 



Leaves solitary, rigid, flat, dagger-shaped, and standing at 

 right angles on every side of the branches ; dark, shining green 

 above, with two silvery lines beneath, and tapering from the 

 base to the point, which terminates in a sharp point ; footstalks 

 very short, dilated lengthwise at their juncture with the 

 branches, equally and closely distributed all over the branches, 

 and not two-rowed, as is commonly the case in the Silver Firs. 

 Buds prominent, somewhat square-sided, pointed, and slightly 

 covered with resin ; branches very numerous, in regular tiers 

 on the main stem, but branching in all directions in the lateral 

 ones. Cones erect, straight, cylindrical, tapering a little at both 

 ends, five or six inches long, and an inch and a half in diameter. 

 Scales rounded on the upper part, broad and entire, wedge- 

 shaped below; bracteas projecting beyond the scales, linear- 

 oblong, with the ' lower part much attenuated, and tapering 

 gradually into a stifi", unequally-toothed, and reflexed sharp 

 point at the top. 



