Abies 769 



branchlets smooth, brown, covered with moderately dense, short, erect pubescence, 

 retained on the older branchlets, the bark of which becomes slightly fissured. 



Leaves on lateral branches arranged almost as in ^. Nordmanniana; those on the 

 under side of the branchlet pectinate ; those on the upper side shorter and covering 

 the branchlet, the median ones pointing upwards and forwards, and not appressed so 

 much as in ^. Nordmanniana. Leaves, about \ to i inch long, ^ inch wide, linear, 

 flattened, gradually tapering to the base, uniform in width in the anterior half, with 

 a truncate bifid apex ; upper surface dark green, shining, with a continuous median 

 groove and without stomata ; lower surface with two conspicuously white, broad 

 bands of stomata, in nine to ten lines ; resin - canals median. On cone - bearing 

 branches, the leaves are more crowded, and less plainly pectinate below, than is the 

 case in barren branches. 



Staminate flowers ^ ^ inch long on a stalk of the same length ; anthers stalked, 

 connective developed into a saddle-shaped flap, from the back of which projects a 

 horizontal or deflexed spur-like process. 



Cones sessile or sub-sessile, cylindrical, flattened at the apex, 2 to 2^ inches 

 long, f to I inch in diameter, bluish before ripening, brown when mature. Scales 

 small ; lamina | inch wide, f inch long, crescentic, with two lateral denticulate 

 wings, which are separated from the narrow obcuneate base by rounded deep 

 sinuses. Bract as long as the scale, obcuneate below, dilated above into a two- 

 winged denticulate lamina, ending in a short mucro, slightly exserted and reflexed. 

 Seed-wing very broad and short, scarcely the length of the body of the seed ; 

 seed with wing about f inch long. 



Varieties 



Mayr distinguishes two forms of cones : — 



1. VdiV. typica. Cones large, about 2 J inches long ; bracts exserted and reflexed. 



2. Var. Nikkoensis. Cones small, 2 inches long ; bracts scarcely visible, their 

 fine points projecting only slightly between the scales. 



Abies nephrolepis, Maximowicz,^ has been united with Abies Veitchii by Masters, 

 and is perhaps a geographical form of the latter species, occurring in Amurland. 

 According to Maximowicz it differs in the leaves of cone-bearing branchlets being 

 sometimes acute and not bifid, and in the smaller ovoid-cylindrical cones, the scales 

 of which are longer than the bracts and less in size than those of the Japanese tree. 

 This Manchurian tree has not apparently been introduced into cultivation and is still 

 imperfectly known. 



Abies Eichleri, Lauche, was supposed to have been raised from seeds sent from 

 Tiflis to Potsdam ; and was considered to be a new species from the Caucasus. 

 Some error, however, had arisen, as the plants turned out to be identical with Abies 

 Veitchii. 



Abies Veitchii has been collected according to Beissner' by Pere Giraldi at 



■ Masters, loc. cit. ' MH. Biol. vi. 22 (1866). ' See/cum. Linn. Soc. {Bat.) xxvi. 557 (1902). 



IV I 



