794 'T'he Trees of Great Britain and Ireland 



but this character is variable, and I judged from the specimens shown me by Miss 

 A. Eastwood, that the two forms cannot always be defined. 



On the west slopes of Mount Shasta the tree occurs higher up than A. Lowiana, 

 mixing with it at about 6000 feet, and at 8000 feet it is the only species of fir. It is 

 not on Mount Shasta a very large tree, the biggest that I measured being not much 

 over 100 feet in height, and isjfeet in girth, the average being 80 to 100 feet high, 

 by 6 to 8 feet in girth. I could not see very much difference in the bark ; though 

 A. magnifica is known as the red, and A. Lowiana as the white fir, but the very 

 much larger cones of the former distinguish it at once. These were borne 

 only near the summit of the trees, and could only be procured by shooting them 

 off with a rifle, or by felling trees on purpose. They were fully formed but un- 

 ripe in the first week of September. The soil here was very rocky, and drier 

 than that of any mountain which I have ascended in this latitude ; and there was 

 little herbaceous vegetation, though the snow is said to lie deep from November 

 until May or June. 



Introduction 



This species was introduced in 1851 by John Jeffrey, who believed it to be 

 A. amabilis; and the seedlings were distributed under this name amongst the 

 members of the Scottish Oregon Association. The tree in Scotland is frequently 

 labelled A. amabilis, in consequence of this error. 



W. Lobb^ sent seed in 1852, also under the name of ^. amabilis; but later on 

 the plants were found to differ from that species, and were distributed by Messrs. 

 Veitch as A. nobilis robusta. 



Remarkable Trees 



Though it is quite possible that larger trees exist, which have been mistaken 

 for A. nobilis, yet we have identified none in England which at all approach that 

 species in size, and all the best we have seen are in the eastern and southern counties. 

 The largest perhaps is one at Fulmodestone, Norfolk, a handsome and well-shaped 

 tree growing in a damp soil and well sheltered situation, which in 1905 was 61 feet 

 by 5 feet 9 inches, and bore cones near the summit. 



At Bayfordbury, on a much drier soil, it has flourished better than A. nobilis, and 

 in 1905 was 56 feet by 5 feet 9 inches (Plate 222), Mr. H. Clinton Baker recently 

 measured a good specimen, 61 feet by 4 feet 4 inches, at Flitwick Manor; and 

 another, 60 feet by 4 feet 9 inches at High Leigh, near Hoddesdon. At Grayswood, 

 Haslemere, a tree planted as recently as 1881, measured in 1906 56 feet by 4 feet 

 II inches; and at Petworth, in 1905, there was a slender and less vigorous tree 47 

 feet by 3 feet i inch. 



At Eridge Park, Kent, a tree planted in 1880 by Count Gleichen was, in 1905, 

 34 feet by i\ feet. 



In a pinetum close to Presteign, Radnorshire, planted about fifty years ago, 



i Hortus Veitchii, 336 (1906). 



