782 The Trees of Great Britain and Ireland 



ABIES AMABILIS, Lovely Fir 



Abies amabilis, Forbes, Pinet. Woburn. 125, t. 44 (1840); UssXfxs, Journ. Linn. Soc. {Bot.) xxii. 

 171, t. 2 (1886), and Gard. Chron. iii. 754, f- 102 (1888); Sargent, Silva N. Amer. xii. 125, 

 t. 614 (1898), and Trees N. Amer. 59 (1905); Kent, Veitch's Man. Conif. 489 (1900). 



Abies grandis, Murray, Froc. Roy. Hort. Soc. iii. 308 (1863) (not Lindley). 



Pinus amabilis, Douglas, Comp. Bot. Mag. ii. 93 (name only) (1836); Antoine, Conif. 63 

 (1846). 



Pinus grandis, Don, in Lambert, Pitius, iii. t. (1837). 



Picea amabilis, Loudon, Arb. et Prut. Brit. iv. 2342 (in part) (1838). 



A tree sometimes attaining in America 250 feet in height and 18 feet in girth, 

 but at high altitudes and in the north usually not more than 80 feet. Bark thin, 

 smooth, pale or silvery white ; becoming, on very old trunks, thick near the ground 

 and irregularly divided into small scaly plates. Buds small, globose, resinous, 

 smooth, with purple scales all immersed in the resin, except occasionally two or 

 three, small and keeled, at the base of the bud. Young shoots grey, smooth, 

 densely covered with short, loose, wavy pubescence. 



Leaves on lateral branches arranged as in A. Nordmanniana, up to \\ to \\ inch 

 long by ^ inch broad, fragrant, linear, flattened, gradually tapering from the 

 middle to the base, slightly broader in the anterior half, with a truncate and bifid 

 apex ; upper surface very dark green and lustrous, with a continuous median groove 

 and without stomata ; lower surface with two broad white bands of stomata, each of 

 eight to ten lines ; resin-canals marginal. Leaves on vigorous leading shoots acute 

 with long rigid points, closely appressed or recurved near the middle. Leaves on 

 cone-bearing branches upturned, acute or acuminate. 



Cones ovoid-cylindric, slightly narrowing to the rounded apex, dark purple 

 when growing, brown when mature ; 3^ to 6 inches long by 2 to i^ inches in 

 diameter. Scales, i to i^ inch wide, nearly as long as broad, inflexed at the upper 

 rounded margin, gradually narrowing towards the base. Bracts rhombic or obovate- 

 oblong; lamina situated just above the base of the scale and ending in a long 

 acuminate tip, which reaches half the height of the scale. Seeds light yellowish 

 brown, \ inch long, with oblique pale brown shining wings about f inch long. 



Abies amabilis resembles A. Nordmanniana in the arrangement and size of the 

 leaves; but is readily distinguished from it by the small globose resinous buds. 

 The leaves are also much darker, shining above, more truncate at the apex ; and 

 emit, especially when bruised, a strong fragrant odour which resembles that of 

 mandarin orange peel. (A. H.) 



Distribution and History 



Abies amabilis occurs on mountain slopes and terraces from British Columbia 

 southward along the Cascade Mountains to northern Oregon, and on the 

 coast ranges of Oregon and Washington. According to Sargent, it attains its 

 largest size on the Olympic Mountains, where it is the most common silver fir. 



