100 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



spcciosa was attached.* Pollen from A. Pinsapo was, in this instance, 

 placed on the female flowers of A. Norchnanniana, care having been taken 

 to remove all the male flowers from the last-named plant, so that it 

 might not be fertilised by its own pollen. By the kindness of M, Croux 

 and of M. Andre, I have received a specimen of this hybrid, the leaves of 

 which are intermediate in appearance between those of its parents, the 

 leaves having the general appearance of those of A. Norchnanniana, but 

 shorter, thicker, and acutely pointed, as in .1. Pinsapo. The resin canals 



are sub-epidermal, as in A. Norchnanniana. M. Bailly gives a full 

 description of this hybrid in the " Revue Horticole " ; as also of a second 

 plant, which has been called 



Ahies iusirjnis. — The history of this tree is as follows. In 1848 or 

 1849 a graft of Abies Pinsapo was grafted on to a stock of the Silver Fir, 

 Ahies pcctinata, m the nursery of M. Renault, of Bulgneville (Vosges). 

 In due time cones were produced on the grafted plant, and these yielded 

 seed. The seeds were sown and seedlings appeared, one half of which 

 were like those of A. Pinsapo and the remainder were intermediate 

 between A. Pinsapo and A. j^;2c/i«a^a. In subsequent years the 

 resemblance in the seedlings to A. Pinsapo decreased, whilst the propor- 

 tion of the intermediate forms increased. t It was at first supposed that 

 the variation was a result of graft-hybridisation, but the presence at no 

 great distance of a tree of Ahies Norchnanniana, which is known to have 

 borne male flowers, renders it more than probable that the hybrid 

 character of the seedlings was the result of a cross from A. Pinsapo by 

 A. Nordmanniana rather than the result of graft-hybridisation. 



M. Bailly, who has grown seedling plants from both these sources, 

 remarks on the vigorous growth that they make and on the great simi- 

 larity that exists between the seedlings of the two plants. In both the 

 habit, ramification, colour, and arrangement of the leaves recall A. 

 Norchnanniana, but the thickness of the leaves and their leathery texture 

 are more like those of A. Pinsapo. The direction of the branches is 

 intermediate between that of the two parents, less spreading than in 

 Pinsapo. The extremity of the leaf is not acuminate or mucronate as in 

 the mother, nor is it truncate and notched as in the father ; it is, in fact, 

 subacute or obtuse. 



Since this paper was originally laid before the Committee M. Moser, 

 of Versailles, has kindly forwarded me a series of specimens representing 

 hybrid Conifers raised by him in 1878. These consist of four different 

 forms, all raised from Ahies Pinsapo, fertilised by the pollen of Ahies 

 Norchnanniana, the reverse cross to that effected by M. Croux, and one of 

 special interest, the result of the crossing of the Japanese Picea ajanensis 



* Ecviie Horticole, May 16, 1890, p. 230. f Horticole (1879), p. 444. 



Fig. 25. — Plan of Leaf Section, M. Croux 's Hybrid. 



