Red Silver Fir 



8i 



6. RED SILVER FIR — Abies amabilis (Loudon) Forbes 



Picea amabilis Loudon 



This magnificent tree, being all that its name implies, is also called Amabilis 

 fir, Lovely fir. Lovely red fir, Red fir, and by lumbermen erroneously Larch. It 

 occurs from the Columbia River in Oregon northward into British Columbia. 



Fig. 62. — Red Silver Fir. 



Its greatest size is attained in the Olympic Mountains of Washington, its maxi- 

 mum height being about 75 meters, with a trunk diameter of 1.75 meters. In the 

 dense forests which this tree frequently forms the trunk is naked for about two 

 thirds its height, but in the open it is often furnished all over with short, some- 

 what drooping branches and branchlets. 



The bark of old trees is about 5 cm. thick, irregularly fissured into broad 

 lidges of scaly plates, red-gray to brown; on younger trees the bark is thin; pale 

 or nearly white, and smooth except for the large resin "blisters." The stout twigs, 

 covered with short hairs, are yellowish brown, becoming purplish to red. The 

 winter buds are nearly globular, about 6 mm. thick, covered by close shining scales 



