732. The Trees of Great Britain and Ireland 



ABIES PINSAPO, Spanish Fir 



Abies Pinsapo, Boissier, Bihlioth. Univ. Genive, xiii. 167 (1838), and Voyage Espagne, ii. 584, tt. 



167-169 (1845); Masters, Card. Chron. xxiv. 468, f. 99 (1885), xxvi. 8, f. i (1886), and iii. 



140, f. 22 (1888); Kent, Veitch's Man. Conifera, 534 (i9°o)- 

 Pinus Pinsapo, Antoine, Conif. 65, t. 26, f. 2 (1842-1847). 

 Picea Pinsapo, Loudon, Encycl. Trees, 1041 (1842). 



A tree attaining about 100 feet in height and 15 feet in girth. Bark smooth in 

 young trees, becoming rugged and fissured on old trunks. Buds ovoid, obtuse at the 

 apex, resinous. Young shoots glabrous, brownish, with slightly raised pulvini. 



Leaves on lateral branchlets radially arranged, linear, flattened, but thick, rigid, 

 short, I to f inch long by about -^ inch wide, gradually narrowing in the upper third 

 to the acute apex ; upper surface convex without a median furrow and with eight to 

 fourteen lines of stomata ; lower surface with two bands of stomata, each of six or 

 seven lines ; resin-canals usually median.^ In young plants the leaves are longer and 

 end in sharp cartilaginous points. On cone-bearing branches the leaves are short 

 and thick, lozenge-shaped in section, with twenty or more lines of stomata on the 

 upper surface, and two bands of stomata of about ten lines each on the lower surface, 

 which has a prominent keeled midrib. 



Staminate flowers crimson, cylindrical, \ inch long, surrounded at the base by 

 two series of broadly ovate obtuse scales. 



Cones sessile or subsessile, brownish when mature, pubescent, cylindrical, 

 tapering to an obtuse apex ; 4 to 5 inches long by \\ to if inches in diameter. 

 Scales : lamina three-sided, i inch wide by |^ inch long, upper margin almost entire, 

 lateral margins nearly straight, laciniate ; claw short, obcuneate. Bract minute, 

 situated at the base of the scale, ovate, orbicular or rectangular, denticulate, 

 emarginate with a short mucro. Seed with wing \\ inch long ; wing two to three 

 times as long as the body of the seed. In cultivated specimens the cones and scales 

 are usually considerably smaller than in wild trees. 



Cotyledons '^ six, convex and stomatiferous on the upper surface, flattish and 

 green on the lower surface. 



Hybrids 



A series of hybrids have been obtained between A. Pinsapo and two other 

 species, A. cephalonica and A. Nordmanniana, of which a full account is given by 

 Dr. Masters in his valuable paper on hybrid conifers.^ 



I. Abies Vilmorini, Masters.* This is a tree growing at Verrieres near Paris, 

 which has the following history. In 1867, M. de Vilmorin placed some pollen of 

 A. cephalonica on the female flowers of a tree of A. Pinsapo. A single fertile seed 

 was produced, which was sown in the following year ; germination ensued and the 



1 The resin-canals in this species are variable in position. Cf. Guinier and Maire, in Bull. Soc. Bot. Frame, Iv. 190 (1908) 



2 Masters, in litt. ^ Joum. Roy. Hort. Soc. xxvi. 99 seq. (1901). * Ibid. 109. 



