Abies amabilis. S7 



than those of A. nobilis, straight, glossy green above, with a sunk 

 line along the middle and with two broad glaucous lines beneath. 

 The general aspect of the finest specimens in England (very few 

 in number) is dark and massive, but rendered pleasing and even 

 striking by the feathered decumbent branches and the peculiar deep 

 bluish green of the foliage. 



Sabitat. — Oregon and British Columbia, from Mount Hood north- 

 wards ; on the Cascade Mountains as far north as the Fraser river ; 

 on Silver Mountain, near Fort Hope, at 4,000 to 5,000 feet eleva- 

 tion.* 



Introduced in 1831 by the Horticultural Society of London, 

 through their collector, David Douglas. 



Much confusion exists respecting the identity and nomenclature of 

 this and other Silver Firs of north-west America. The synonymy has 

 hecome especially perplexing in the case of Abies amabilis. The tree 

 described above is usually regarded by British horticulturists as the 

 A. amabilis of Douglas, who gave no further information about it than 

 the name which he sent home with the cones, none of which appear 

 to have been preserved. In De Candolle's Prodromus xvi., p. 426, 

 the tree described as A. amabilis is the A. lasiocarpa of Sir W. Hooker, 

 (A. bifolia of A. Murray), but which Dr. Engelmann calls A. subalpina, 

 while the A. amabilis of Dr. Newberry, in the Pacific Eailway Keport, 

 is neither of the preceding, but a variety of A. subalpina, which Dr. 

 Engelmann calls fallax.f Dr. McXab is of opinion that A. magnifica 

 is the true A. amabilis of Douglas, j and it is the seed of this Fir 

 that is frequently sent to Europe by the Californian seed collectors under 

 the name of A. amabilis. To add to the entanglement, A. concolor, 

 which Dr. Engelmann affirms is the correct name of the A. lasiocarpa 

 of gardens, not of Hooker, for they too are quite different trees, has 

 found its way into European gardens under the name of A. amabilis. 

 It is only till quite recently that the identity of the Abies amabilis, 

 described above, with that of Douglas, has been satisfactorily estab- 

 lished. In the summer of 1880 Professor Sargent, Director of the 

 Arnold Arboretum at Harvard, IT.S.A., accompanied by Dr. Engelmann 

 and Dr. Parry, eminent American botanists, undertook a journey to 

 Oregon and Washington Territory for the purpose of investigating the 

 forests of that region, in the course of which they found A. amabilis 

 on the Cascade Mountains, and in other localities. Professor Sargent, 



* Dr. Engelmann in the Gardeners' Chronicle, 1880, vol. xiv., p. 270. 



+ Transactions of the Academy of Science of St. Louis, 1878. 



$ Bevision of the Species of Abies, p. 702. 



