Abies 80 1 



orbicular, denticulate, emarginate with a long slender mucro. Seed ^ inch long, with 

 dark purplish shining wings, which vary in length according to the height of the 

 scale which they cover almost completely. 



Var. arizonica, Lemmon, Bull. Sierra Club, ii. 167 (1897); Masters, Gard. 

 Chron. xxix. 86, 134, ff. 52, 53 (1901). 



Abies arizonica, Merriam, Proc. Biol. Soc. Wash. x. 115, ff. 24, 25 (1896); Purpus, Garten- 

 welt, V. 4, 26 (1896). 



This form occurs in the San Francisco mountains in Arizona, where it is 

 common between 8500 and 9500 feet elevation, and occasionally ascends to 12,000 

 feet. It is remarkable for the creamy-white thick corky bark of the trunk. As seen 

 in cultivation, young plants differ from the type, in the leaves being emarginate at 

 the apex, whiter beneath, and more regularly pectinate in arrangement. Sargent ^ 

 states that bark equally corky occurs in trees of Abies lasiocarpa in other regions, 

 as in Colorado, Oregon, South Alberta, and British Columbia ; and, as there is no 

 difference in the cones, he does not assign even varietal rank to the Arizona tree. 



The best account of this variety is by Prof. Purpus in Mitt. D. D. Ges., No. 13, 

 p. 47 (1904), who visited the San Francisco mountains in 1901, and introduced 

 the tree to Europe. It seems to be a strictly alpine tree, growing on basaltic and 

 trachytic rocks, where the soil is never quite dry, either scattered or mixed with 

 Populus tremuloides, Pinus fiexilis, Pseudotsuga Douglasii, and Picea Engelmanni. 

 It attains a height of 60 to 70 feet with a girth of 6 to 9 feet. The bark is 

 very corky and corrugated, in old trees milk-white or silver-grey in colour. It is 

 replaced in these mountains at 7000 to 8000 feet by Abies concolor. 



This form has only recently been introduced into cultivation. Plants were for 

 sale in the Pinehurst Nurseries, North Carolina, in 1901 ; and Dr. Masters saw a 

 stock of young plants in Moser's nursery at Versailles in 1903. It is too soon yet 

 to form any opinion as to the suitability of this variety for ornamental gardening. 



Identification 



Abies lasiocarpa is perhaps most readily distinguished by the conspicuous bands 

 of stomata on the upper surface of the leaf, which separate it clearly from the other 

 species ^ with median resin-canals and long narrow leaves. The following points are 

 also noteworthy : — the irregular arrangement of the leaves, which are usually quite 

 entire at the apex ; the ashy-grey pubescent shoots ; and the resinous obtuse buds. 



(A. H.) 



Distribution 



This is essentially the alpine fir of the Rocky Mountains and higher ranges on 

 the west coast of North America, and is the most widely distributed fir of the New 

 World, occurring from about lat. 61° N. in Alaska to Arizona and New Mexico. It 

 does not occur in California.* In the west it extends to the summits of the Olympic 



' Silva, xii. 113. * As ^. sibirica and A. sachalinensis, which it somewhat resembles in general appearance. 



^ U.S. Forest Service, Sylvical Leaflet i, Alpine Fir. 

 IV N 



