Abies 765 



As seen in cultivation at Kew, it is a small tree, resembling in bark and habit 

 A. brachyphylla. The foliage, however, is rather like that oi A. firma, and the tree 

 is occasionally cultivated under that name.^ 



Buds ovoid, obtuse at the apex, whitened with resin, much larger than those of 

 A. firma. Young shoots grey, glabrous, with prominent pulvini and grooves, which 

 become less marked in the second year. 



Leaves on lateral branches arranged as in A. firma, those of the upper rank 

 about half the length of those of the lower rank, linear, flattened, rigid and slightly 

 coriaceous, up to about i^ inch long, ^ inch wide (much narrower than in A. firma), 

 tapering gradually to the base, and narrowing near the rounded or acute apex, which 

 is bifid with two short unequal cartilaginous points ; upper surface dark green, 

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

 two raised narrow white bands of stomata, each of about eight lines ; resin-canals 

 marginal. 



Though this species has been in cultivation^ since 1876 or earlier, we have seen 

 no large specimens ; and are ignorant as to whether it changes in character as it 

 grows older or is short-lived. Its distribution in Japan is not known. 



(A. H.) 



ABIES BRACHYPHYLLA, Nikko Fir 



Abies brachyphylla^ Maximowicz, Mil. Biol. vi. 23 (1866); Masters, Gard. Chron. xii. 556 (1879), 

 zxidjoum. Linn. Soc. (Bot!) xviii. 515 (1881); Hooker, Bot. Mag. t. 71 14 (1890). 



Abies homolepis^ Mayr, Abiet. Jap. Belches, 35, t. 2 f. 3 (1890); Shirasawa, Icon. Ess. Forest. Japon, 

 text 14, t. 3, ff. 1-12 (1900); and Kent, Veitch's Man. Coniferce, 513 (1900) (not Siebold at 

 Zuccarini, Fl. Jap. ii. 17, t. 108 (1844)). 



Pinus brachyphylla, Parlatore, in D.C. Prod. xvi. 2, p. 424 (1868). 



Picea brachyphylla, Gordon, Pinetum, 201 (1875). 



A tree attaining in Japan over 100 feet in height and 16 feet in girth. Bark 

 fissuring and scaly on young branches and on the stems of young trees, becoming 

 like that of a spruce on old trees. Buds ellipsoid or broadly conical, obtuse at the 

 apex, smooth, brownish, resinous. Young shoots greyish, glabrous, with prominent 

 pulvini, separated by deep grooves, the pulvini and grooves becoming more marked 

 in older shoots. 



Leaves on lateral branches pectinate ; those below extending laterally outwards 

 in the horizontal plane, with a few in the middle line directed forwards and down- 

 wards ; those on the upper side of the branchlet directed upwards and outwards, in 



1 It is readily distinguishable from A. firma by its glabrous shoots, larger buds, and much less coriaceous and narrower 



leaves. 



' M'Nab, loc. cit. mentions plants of this species, which were growing under the name of A. Veitchii in several nurseries. 



' The following description applies to the tree, described by Maximowicz, which is, in my opinion and that of Dr. 

 Masters, very different from Abies homolepis, S. et Z., which is treated by us as a distinct species. 



