762 The Trees of Great Britain and Ireland 



ABIES FIRMA, Japanese Fir 



Abies firma, Siebold et Zuccarini, Fl. Jap. ii. 15, t. 107 (1844); Masters, Gard. Chron. xii. 198, 199 

 (1879), and>«r«. Linn. Soc. {Bot.) xviii. 514 (1881); Mayr, AbieL Jap. Reiches, 31, t. i, f. i 

 (1890); Shirasawa, Icon. Ess. Forest. Japan, text 17, t. 6, ff. 1-21 (1900); Kent, Veitch's 

 Man. Coniferce, 506 (1900). 



Abies bifida, Siebold et Zuccarini, FL Jap. ii. 18, t. 109 (1844). 



Abies Momi} Siebold, Verhand. Batav. Gen. xii. loi (1830) (nomen nudum). 



Pinus firma and Pinus bifida, Antoine, Conifi 70, 79 (1846). 



Picea firma, Gordon, Pinet. 147 (1858). 



A tree, attaining 150 feet in height and 16 feet in girth. Bark of branches 

 and trunk early becoming scaly, in old trees Assuring into small plates. Buds small, 

 ovoid, obtuse at the apex, brown, glabrous, slightly resinous. Young shoots 

 brownish grey, with the pulvini slightly raised and separated by grooves ; pubescence 

 short, erect, scattered, confined to the grooves. Older shoots retaining the pubescence 

 and Assuring between the pulvini, which are not very prominent. 



Leaves on lateral branches pectinately arranged; those below extending 

 laterally outwards in the horizontal plane; those on the upper side gradually 

 shortening to nearly one-third of the length of the lower leaves, and directed in two 

 sets laterally outwards and slightly upwards, forming a shallow V-shaped arrange- 

 ment.^ Leaves up to \\ inch long, linear, flattened, very coriaceous, shortly tapering 

 to the base, broadest about the middle {\ inch or more), gradually narrowing to the 

 acute apex, which ends in two sharp cartilaginous points, unequal in size ; upper 

 surface dark green, shining, with a continuous median groove and without stomata ; 

 lower surface with broad greyish bands of stomata, each of about ten to twelve lines ; 

 resin-canals close to the epidermis of the lower surface. Leaves on cone-bearing 

 branches upturned, rounded and entire or only minutely bifid at the apex. 



Staminate flowers, \ inch long, ovoid-conic, surrounded at the base by two to 

 three series of broadly ovate scales. 



Cones on stout short stalks, cylindrical, tapering shortly at the base, and obtuse 

 or flattened at the slightly narrowed apex, yellowish-green before ripening, brown 

 when mature, 4 to 5 inches long by i^^ to if inches in diameter, with the tips of the 

 bracts exserted between the scales but not reflexed. Scales : lamina i^^g. inches 

 wide by f inch long, broadly trapezoidal ; upper margin thin, minutely denticulate ; 

 lateral margins convex, denticulate ; base broad with a sinus on each side of the 

 obcuneate claw. Bract extending either nearly up to the edge of the scale or 

 beyond it, always visible externally between the scales, oblong in the lower half, 

 expanding above into an oval lamina, which ends in a triangular cusp. Seed-wing 

 broadly trapezoidal, about twice the length of the body of the seed. Seed with 

 wing nearly \ inch long. Cotyledons four. 



1 This name, which has been adopted by Sargent, Silva N. Amer. xii. loi, adnot., was published without any descrip- 

 tion, and cannot be maintained. Cf. Masters, Gard. Chron. loc. cit. 



2 On vigorous shoots, the leaves are directed more upwards so that the V-shaped depression is very acute. 



