BOTANY. 
53 
tree ; though one would search in vain among cultivated trees for any which should rival 
in the symmetry of its form, the luxuriance of its foliage, and the size and beauty of its cones, 
the western silver fir. 
u September 17.— * * On the little prairie which borders one side of the lake are a few trees of 
the silver fir. With a strong and unimpeded growth, it has here attained a magnitude I have 
not elsewhere seen. It rises in denser and more symmetrical cones than any other conifer we 
have met with. The altitude of the largest is more than a hundred feet; the base of the cone 
formed, the branches resting on the ground not more than twenty. The branches are so thick 
as to prevent all access to the trunk without a vigorous use of the hatchet; and during the 
pouring rain of the last four days, we have always been able to find a dry spot beneath the 
shelter of its impervious foliage.” From these descriptions it will be seen that the silver fir 
forms a dense and slender spire of dark-green foliage, which, on the older trees, is rather too 
formal to he pleasing, unless grouped with other species, with which its form and the color of 
the foliage may contrast agreeably. In the Cascade mountains I often saw it so combined with 
P. grandis and Abies Williamsonii, producing groups which seemed to me to present the extremo 
limit of arborescent beauty. 
Abies Williamsonii, Neiub. (Plate VII.) Williamson’s spruce. 
Fig. 19. Cone, branch, leaves, scales, seeds, and male flower of A. Williamsonii, natural size. 
Fig. 19a, 6. View of side and base of old cone of A. Williamsonii , natural size. 
Description.—A. tree of large size and alpine habit ; foliage somewhat fasciculate like that of 
the larches ; leaves short, acute, compressed, with a lenticular section. Cones pendant, long- 
ovoid acute, 1^ inch long, purple while young ; when old, cylindrical or somewhat conical with 
a flattened base ; scales rounded entire, large, in old cones strongly reflexed, except at the base 
