94 ABIES, OR SILVER FIRS 
customs that entitles them to enter the ranks of 
other groups. 
The LasrocarPa was probably discovered during 
the north-west expedition by Lewis and Clark, 1805, 
but was first collected by Douglas in 1832. It has 
been variously called Balsam or Mountain Balsam, 
or Alpine Fir, and familiarly addressed by the less 
learned and Latinised of the gardener fraternity as 
‘Lazy. Old Carp, and always seems to be more or 
less a perplexity even to those more than ordinarily 
acquainted with the rarities of Pinetums. That 
this uncertainty exists can only be due to the fact 
that many trees wrongly have left the nurseries under 
the name of Lasiocarpa or Subalpina. For the 
most part they have turned out to be Concolor or 
Lowiana. From a branch that I have before me, 
sent by the Forest Service of the United States, which 
has voyaged from Colorado to County Radnor, the 
very pallor of its grey-green leaves looks of a different 
hue from any other Conifer that I have seen. Possibly 
they may have faded from their pristine glory of blue- 
green with a silvery tinge, attributed to them by 
American dendrologists. The apices of the leaves of 
these are all rounded, sometimes we are told that on 
young shoots they are acute. Those on top side of 
branch point upward, and those below are disposed 
to curve insympathy to join them. The branches 
were corky, fissured, pubescent, and of a light straw 
colour. Where the leaf had left its appointed 
place, there remained an oval-shaped light-red scar. 
This in itself, if there were no other, is a guide to its 
identity safe and sure. The characteristic swelling 
of the nodes is very apparent. 
I write of it as it lies before me and as I have found 
it. The cones that accompanied the branches were 
of variable size. Some in clusters of three and 
