■ iri 
ABIES MEDIOXIMA. 
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Identification. —ABIES MEDIOXIMA (Nylander), Narrative of a Botanic Tour through Russian Lapland , by Fellman, in Bulletin de la 
SocilM Botanique de France, separate copy, p. 7 (1864). 
ABIES EXCELSA, Linnaeus, var., Schubeler, Synopsis of Vegetable Products of Norway, p. 17 (1862); Andersson in the 
Farmer, No. 281 (8th August 1866). 
Specific Character. —Abieti excelsa valde affinis, foliis minoribus, strobilis squamis obovatis margine 
rotundato et integro, bradteis oblongis, seminibus alis brevibus et latis degnoscitur. 
Habitat in Lapponia boreali. * 
Fig. 1. 
Fig. 2. 
Fig- 3 - 
Fig 4. 
Fig. 5 - 
The bradt is more 
Very closely allied to the Norway Spruce. The tree itself is usually narrower, the branches spread¬ 
ing out less and bending down more. It attains a height 
of 25 feet, and a diameter of 8 inches. The bark is more 
rimose, as in the Scotch Fir, and the young branchlets are 
pubescent [fig. i]. The leaves [fig. 2, and 3 magnified] 
are shorter, and have fewer rows of stomata, the number of 
rows on each side of the middle, both above and below, 
being only one or two [figs. 4 and 5]. The pulvini on 
which they rest are proportionately broader. The cones 
are pendent, narrow, and small, not more than an inch 
and a half or 2 inches in length, and more acutely ovate 
than those of Abies excelsa [figs. 6 and 7]. The scales are rounded 
or obovate, not pointed, and with the margins entire [fig. 8]. 
oblong, and scarcely at all pointed [fig. 9]. The seed is 
small, with a short, broad, and rounded wing [fig. 10]. 
Some botanists consider this as merely a boreal variety 
of the Norway Spruce. Professor Andersson of Stockholm 
is of this opinion. He says, “When I travelled in Lapland the last time, 1864, 
I very easily observed not only that all the A bies growing there had 
a somewhat different form from our common species, but, going from Q Q 
alpine Lapland to the coast of N orseland at the Baltic, I was sen- n g . I0 . 
sibly struck by all the numerous intermediate forms meeting, so that it was quite impossible 
to say, ‘ Here we have the alpine form, here the normal;’ and going farther southward, I soon convinced 
myself that we have but one species of Pinus Abies in Sweden, but that there exists in our northern 
parts an alpine form, differing in some remarkable points. The same has been observed also in Finland, 
where this form has been named P. Abies medioxima by Nylander.” ( Farmer of August 8, 1866, loc. citi) 
Tried by the test of the existence of occasional exceptional specimens shewing intermediate charadlers, 
this is not the only species of Conifer which would have to be discarded and regarded as a variety. We 
[ 25 ] A should 
Fig. 8. 
Scale. 
0 . 
Fig. 9. 
Bract, magnified. 
Fig. 6. 
Fig. 7- 
