82 A MANUAL OF THE CONIPEEiE. 



The cones of some of the Silver Firs are among the most 

 remarkable productions of the vegetable kingdom. By the kindness 

 of the Eight Hon. Lady Eolle we are enabled to give full size 

 engravings of fertile branchlets of two distinct types, both grown 

 in her ladyship's Pinetum at Bicton, viz., of Abies nobilis, native 

 of California and Oregon, and of A. Webbiana, which inhabits, at 

 high elevations, the southern slopes of the Himalayas. A conception 

 of the extraordinary beauty of these cones is thus rendered far 

 more clear than could be conveyed by ' any verbal description. 



In addition to the general characters of the leaves given above, it 

 will be observed that those on the erect shoots are not twisted at 

 the base, and are thicker and convex above. " The tip of the leaves 

 of young trees, and of the lower branches of older ones, is notched 

 in almost all the species ; the leaves of robust shoots and of fertile 

 branches are mostly entire, obtuse in some, acute in others. All the 

 leaves have stomata on the under side, arranged in a smaller or larger 

 number of series, forming bands on each side of the keel. On the upper 

 side of the leaf, stomata are present in some and absent in other species." * 



The Silver Firs are, with but few exceptions, not only natives 

 of warmer climates, but also in mountainous districts they are 

 found at a lower elevation, and therefore, generally speaking, are 

 less hardy in constitution than the Spruces; and although most of 

 the known species are now thoroughly acclimatised in Great Britain, 

 or in particular parts of it, there are some that have altogether 

 failed thus far to become established in this country. The timber 

 of the Silver Firs is less valuable than that yielded by the Spruces; 

 the grain is coarse and irregular, the wood is brittle and splinters 

 when being worked ; it is also very resinous. 



The number of species is greater than that of the Spruce Firs, 

 but the habitat of each, with two or three exceptions, is restricted 

 to an area small in comparison with the vast regions over which 

 the principal species of the Spruce are distributed. 



The popular name Silver Fir is referable to the glaucous silvery 

 lines seen on the under side of the leaves of all, or nearly all the 

 species. 



The following Synoptic Table includes all the known Silver 

 Firs;— 



* Dr. Engelmami in Transactions of tU Academy of Science, St. Louis, U.S.A., 1878, 



