CHARACTERISTICS OF GROUPS (SILVER FIRS) 67 
in height all other competitors. Whether they will 
in turn be out-topped by sky-scraping Sequoias in 
this country, or some other competitor of their own 
genus, like the A. Forrestii, A. Recurvata, or the 
A. Delavayii, hailing from internal China, is a question 
for future generations to pronounce opinion upon. 
At present our homespun Silver Fir (A. Pectinata) 
towers far and above its companions of the wood- 
lands, and stands out amongst its fellows as a demi-god 
Triton among minnows. 
To those who would essay to dissociate the Silver 
Fir family, one species from another species, we 
would humbly suggest working them out by the 
groups into which they have been arranged by 
standard authorities, and we would submit to the 
reader the following points which are mainly respon- 
sible for their inclusion in the various groups to 
which they have been assigned. — 
Arrangement of Leaves.—(1) Whether they are 
radially (all round the stem) arranged as are the 
leaves in the Spruces. (N.B.—Group I, only these, 
the A. Pinsapo and A. Cephalonica, are thus arranged.) 
(2) Whether they are pectinately arranged, like a 
comb, as particularly and ideally in the A. Grandis 
in Group II. (3) Whether they are less, strictly 
speaking, pectinately and more V-shaped by arrange- 
ment, and if V-shaped, whether they are acutely 
divided or whether their leaves gape out more 
widely apart, rather after the manner of horns of 
cattle, as do some in Group ITI. (4) Whether they 
have, as in Group III, median leaves on the top, 
instead of the bare parting in Group II. 
Other points in shape and habit of leaf, apart 
from any question of arrangement to be noticed: 
(a2) whether the median leaves are as long as 
or shorter than the lower-placed leaves ;_ (2) which 
way these median leaves point (all except in A, 
6 
