Abies 



721 



Cones on short stout stalks, cylindrical, slightly narrowed at both ends, obtuse 

 at the apex, about 6 inches long, 2 inches in diameter, greenish when growing, dull 

 brown when mature, with the points of the bracts exserted and reflexed. Scales 

 tomentose externally, fan - shaped, about i inch broad and long ; upper margin 

 slightly uneven ; lateral margins denticulate, each usually with a sinus, below the 

 slight wings on the outer side of the scale ; claw clavate. Bract with an oblong 

 claw, extending up three-quarters the height of the scale, and expanding above into 

 a lozenge-shaped denticulate lamina, which ends in a sharp long triangular mucro. 

 Seed with wing about an inch long ; wing about twice as long as the body of the 

 seed. 



Seedling 



Seed sown in spring germinates in three or four weeks. The cotyledons, 

 usually five in number, are at first enveloped, as with a cap, by the albumen of the 

 seed ; but speedily casting this off, they spread radially in a whorl at the summit of 

 the short caulicle, and remain green on the plant for several years ; about an inch in 

 length, linear, obtuse at the apex, flat beneath, and slightly ridged on the upper 

 surface, which shows two whitish bands of stomata. In the first year only a single 

 whorl of true leaves, arising immediately above the cotyledons and alternating with 

 them, is produced. Primary leaves short, acute, or obtuse, but not emarginate at 

 the apex, and with the stomatic bands on the lower surface. A terminal bud closes 

 the first season's growth, the plant scarcely attaining two inches high. In the second 

 year ordinary leaves, arranged spirally on the stem, are produced. The growth of 

 the plant in the first two or three years is mainly concentrated in the root, which 

 descends deep into the soil, the increase in height of the stem above ground being 

 trifling. The stem branches in the third or fourth year, and produces annually for 

 some years one or two lateral branches, making no great growth in height, reaching 

 in the ninth year an average of two feet. About the tenth year normal verticillate 

 branching begins ; and from this onwards the plant makes rapid growth. 



Varieties 



Dr. Klein gives in Vegetationsbilder illustrations of some remarkable forms ^ 

 which the silver fir assumes at high elevations in Central Europe, and which he calls 

 " Wettertanne " or " Schirmtanne." These trees have lost their main leader through 

 lightning, wind, or otherwise, and have developed immense side branches which 

 spread and then ascend, sometimes forming a candelabra-like shape. The finest of 

 this type known to him is at St. Cerques in Switzerland, and measures at breast 

 height no less than 7.40 metres in girth, about the same as the largest of the 

 Roseneath ^ trees. 



Other varieties, distinguished by their peculiar habit, occur in the wild state. 



1 These forms are also described by Dr. Christ in Garden and Forest, ix. 273 (1896). 



2 One of the trees at Roseneath, Dumbartonshire, has a similar growth of erect branches, like leaders from some of the 

 horizontal limbs. This is figured, from a photograph by Vernon Heath, in Card. Chron. xxii. 8, fig. I (1884). At Powers- 

 court there is also a large tree, 13 feet 3 inches in girth, with branches prostrate on the ground and sending up several upright 

 stems. 



IV ^ 



