Abies 779 



ABIES LOWIANA, Californian Fir 



Abies Lowiana, A. Murray, Proc. Roy. Hort. Soc. iii. 317 (1863). 



Abies lasiocarpa, Masters (not Nuttall or Murray), Gard. Chron. xiii. 8, f. i (1880). 



Abies grandis, Lindley, var. Lowiana, M.a.steis, /ourn. Linn. Soc. {Bot.), xxii. 175, ff. 6, 7 (1886). 



Abies concolor, Sargent, Silva JV. Amer. xii. 121 (1898), and Trees JV. Amer. 62 (1905) (in part). 



Abies concolor, Lindley and Gordon, var. lasiocarpa, Beissner, Handb. Conif. 71 (1887). 



Abies concolor, Lindley and Gordon, var. Lowiana, Lemmon, W. Amer. Cone-Bearers, 64 (1895); 



Kent, Veitch's Man. Conif. 502 (1900). 

 Picea Lowiana, Gordon, Pinet. Suppl. 53 (1862). 



Picea Parsonsiana, Barron, Catalogue, 1859, and Gard. Chron. v. 77 (1876). 

 Pinus Lowiana, M'Nab, Proc. R. Lrish Acad. ii. 680 (1877). 



A tree, attaining on the Californian Sierras 200 to 250 feet in height, with a 

 trunk often 18 feet in girth. Bark in cultivated specimens as in A. concolor; in wild 

 trees becoming, near the ground, on old trunks, very thick and deeply divided into 

 broad, rounded, scaly ridges. Buds ovoid, blunt at the apex, brownish, resinous, 

 roughened by the raised tips of the scales. Young shoots yellowish green, smooth, 

 covered with a minute scattered pubescence. 



Leaves on lateral branchlets pectinately arranged, each lateral set of about two 

 ranks, directed almost horizontally outwards, or curving upwards and outwards, so as 

 to assume above a V-shaped arrangement. None of the leaves are directed 

 irregularly in the middle line ; and those of the upper rank are only slightly shorter 

 than those of the lower rank. Leaves, up to 2 J inches long, about ^ inch broad, 

 linear, flattened, slightly tapering at the base, uniform in width elsewhere, rounded 

 and bifid at the apex ; upper surface with a wide median furrow, usually not 

 continued to the apex, and with eight lines of stomata in the furrow ; lower surface 

 with two white bands of stomata, each of eight to nine lines ; resin-canals, marginal. 

 Leaves on cone-bearing branches, upturned. 



Cones, according to Sargent, not distinguishable from those of Abies concolor. 

 Wild specimens, however, from California slightly differ, in having larger scales and 

 broader bracts. Cultivated specimens in England bear cones which are chestnut- 

 brown, and apparently never purple, as is often the case in Abies concolor. 



Identification 



Abies Lowiana is regarded by Sargent and other American botanists as a form 

 of A. concolor. As seen in cultivation it is very distinct from that species : more- 

 over, it has a different distribution in the wild state. We have kept it separate, as 

 being more convenient to cultivators. 



In practice it can only be confused with A. grandis, and true A. concolor. The 

 characters distinguishing it from A. grandis are given under this species on p. 773. 



In A. concolor the arrangement of the leaves is irregular, not being truly 

 pectinate. Many of the leaves in the middle line, both above and below, are not 



