74 ABIES, OR SILVER FIRS 
obtained from its bark. A. FRASERI was introduced - 
here in 1811. It is a short-lived tree, and probably 
no living specimens of that period are in existence now. 
Its native countries are the Alleghany Mountains in 
S.-W. Virginia, N. Carolina, and E. Tennessee. 
We will now take the members of Group II seriatim 
and in order, as placed by Elwes and Henry in the 
Trees of Great Britain. 
A. BRACTEATA presentsso many obvious singularities 
that no one need be troubled with any misconceptions 
as to its identity after a first introduction. 
Its leaves are spiny-tipped, the only one of the 
tribe which claims this very pointed distinction. 
They are very long; from tip to tip they span some 
5% inches against the 14 inches or so of the Common 
Silver Fir. Its unique, long, spindle-shaped, light- 
coloured bud, though not quite so long and more 
rotund at the base, recalls the appearance of a Beech 
bud. 
Yet the cone presents a weirder appearance than 
‘all other strange aberrations of the Fir family put 
together. It has the porcupine appearance of a 
small cushion stuffed with very long pins. 
These long, protruding, leaf-like scales are exserted | 
bracts, a name given to those never fully developed 
leaves that surround the fruit or cones of the tree 
at its early stages, and sometimes, especially in this 
tree and the Douglas, have a way of poking their noses 
through the scales of the fully developed cone and 
appearing in different forms ; in the case of a Douglas 
in a Neptune trident form, in the case of the Bracteata 
in the form of a thin bent wire an inch and a half long. 
The result is an uncanny quaintness of appearance 
that makes them look like nothing on earth and 
unlike anything upon trees. It is from these bracts 
that the trees derive their name, and the word “‘bract ”’ 
