94 A MANUAL OF THE C0NIFER.2E. 



Arizona, southern Utah, and the valleys and Sierras of California, 

 as far north as Oregon. 



Introduced by us in 1851, through our collector, William Lobb ; 

 also in the same year by the Oregon Association of Edinburgh, 

 through their collector, John Jeffrey,* both of whom sent it home 

 under the name of Abies grandis. 



Abies concolor is the most widely distributed of all the North 

 American Silver Firs. Spreading over so extensive an area as that 

 briefly sketched above, and under many conditions of altitude, climate, 

 and soil, it is found to vary considerably in height, in size of trunk, 

 in the colour of its foliage, in the length and form of its leaves, 

 &e., and thus the tree received different names according as it was 

 introduced from different localities. The long-leaved variety from Cali- 

 fornia, to which the above description is more particularly applicable, 

 was first sent to us by Mr. William Lobb under the name of A. grandis, 

 but the seedling plants showing a marked difference from the A. grandis 

 of Douglas, we distributed them under the name of A. lasiocarpa, in 

 deference to the source from which we derived it, and that, too, at a 

 time when scarcely anything was known in this country of the speci- 

 mens collected by Fendler in New Mexico in 1847. It is now known 

 that the tree in question is not the original A. lasiocarpa of Sir 

 "William Hooker,! and, therefore, cannot properly retain that name; and 

 the extreme desirableness of freeing the nomenclature of this beautiful 

 tree from the confusion in which it has become involved, will be best 

 effected by adopting the botanical name to which all the varieties are 

 now by the best authorities referred. 



The forms known under the names of lasiocarpa (Hort. Veitch), with 

 which Loioiana. (Gordon) is synonymous, and Parsonsii (Hort. Barron), 

 were introduced from North California and Oregon. The concolor of 

 gardens, as distinguished from these, is from Colorado and in its young 

 state may be recognised by the following characters : — Leaves with both 

 surfaces quite flat, but on the under side the middle nerve may be 

 distinctly traced ; they are somewhat shorter and more pointed than 

 in the Californian and Oregon varieties, much closer together, the 

 distichous arrangement much less marked, and they are of a paler 

 green.} The cones of the Colorado tree are smaller than those from 

 California. A cone from Pike's Peak, kindly sent to us by our friend 

 and correspondent, Mr. Meehan, of Philadelphia, is less than half the 

 size of the cones from California. 



* The Garden, vol. i., p. 464. (Mr. McNab). 



1 t See Bevision of the Species of Abies, by Dr. McNab, in the Transactions of Uw Irish 

 Academy, ii., p. 682 ; and Transactions of the Academy of Science of St. Louis by Dr, 

 Engelmann, reprinted in the Gardeners' Chronicle, 1878, vol. ix., p. 300. 



J Another variety is cultivated under the name of AMcs concolor violacea. 



