(75) 



Now we shall work our way toward the Museum along the 

 western side of this Section. The flat-topped tree that stands a 

 few feet directly north of that first Nordmann's Fir is another 

 Momi Fir. West of it and ahead of us, are seven more Nord- 

 mann's Firs. The finest of these is nearest the path and Museum. 

 Directly east of it are two trees with wide-spreading horizontal 

 branches. The one nearest the road we should identify as another 

 Momi Fir and the other very similar to it in foliage as well as 

 form is 



Abies homolepis var. Tomomi, tht j Tomomi Fir 



Another specimen of this tree stands in the open about half 

 way up the slope toward the Conservatory. As already mentioned, 

 the foliage of these two trees is somewhat like that of the Momi 

 Fir, but if we inspect the twigs we find them conspicuously 

 grooved, indicating the affinity with the Nikko Fir. It is charac- 

 terized by shorter leaves, a more sparingly branched form, and 

 occurs wild in Japan. 



We now come to a number of smaller trees. Two of them are 

 near the path. The first of these is another Cilician Fir and the 

 second poorer-shaped tree is a Greek Fir, which we shall soon 

 consider. Directly toward the Conservatory from this last is an- 

 other Greek Fir and the surrounding six small trees including four 

 we have passed are 



Abies nobilis, the Noble Fir 



The last of these is the low flat-topped one about four feet high 

 to our left. 



The Noble Fir is one of the massive species of the Pacific 

 Northwest, where it is native on the Cascade and Coast ranges 

 from Washington to northern California. It frequently exceeds a 

 height of 250 feet in this range, but under cultivation in the East 

 is usually of a dense bushy form. This species is distinguished 

 from other firs except Abies magnified, another great species of 

 the West but absent from the collection here, by the crowded 

 leaves on the upper side of the branchlets, having their bases flat- 

 tened against it. 



