SILVER FIRS. 219 



or fringed round the edges, and with a prolonged sharp point 

 in the centre. Seeds angular, soft, and with broad hatchet- 

 shaped persistent wings. 



A noble tree, frequently upwards of 250 feet in height, and 

 five or six feet in diameter, found in British Columbia and 

 Northern California, but always in valleys or along the alluvial 

 banks of rivers. 



This very distinct species appears to have been first 

 discovered by Mr. William Lobb, who mistook it for the Picea 

 grandis of Douglas ;* an error easily accounted for, on account 

 of the great similarity of the cones and usual habitat of the 

 tree, both kinds being always found in damp valleys, or along 

 the alluvial banks of rivers, and never as mountain trees. 



It has been named in compliment to Messrs. Low, of the 

 Clapton Nursery, who first introduced it from California. 



It is quite hardy, never getting in the least injured by the 

 late Spring frosts, and very distinct from Picea grandia in its 

 pale green colour, and in the size and shape of the cones. 



No. 18. Picea magnifica, Murray, the Pompous Silver Fir . 

 Syn. Abies nobilis robusta, CarrUre. 

 „ Picea amabiUs, Lobb not Douglas. 



„ robusta, Hort. 

 „ „ „ magnifica, Hort. 



Leaves linear, narrow, blunt pointed, somewhat four-sided, 

 gibbose, sessile, and crowded on the upper side of the branches 

 in an incurved and upright position; but spirally arranged, 

 thickly, all round the branchlets ; and when young of a pale, 

 glaucous green, and when old, dull green, with two pale, dotted 

 glaucous bands beneath, and a thickened midrib on both 

 surfaces, and one inch and a half long, and about three- 

 quarters of a line broad. Buds scaly, blunt pointed, deep 

 brown, and often very resinous. Branches stout, rigid, horizon- 

 tal, and in regular whorls ; lateral ones numerous, rather short, 



* The original plant of Picea grandis, at Elvaston, raised in 1831, 

 from Douglas's seeds, proves the identity of the true kind. 



