Page:TheTreesOfGreatBritainAndIreland vol04B.djvu/114
ABIES AMABILIS, Lovely Fir
- Abies amabilis, Forbes, Pinet. Woburn. 125, t. 44 (1840); Masters, Journ. Linn. Soc. (Bot.) xxii. 171, t. 2 (1886), and Gard. Chron. iii. 754, f. 102 (1888); Sargent, Silva N. Amer. xii. 125, t. 614 (1898), and Trees N. Amer. 59 (1905); Kent, Veitch’s Man. Conif. 489 (1900).
- Abies grandis, Murray, Proc. Roy. Hort. Soc. iii, 308 (186 3) (not Lindley).
- Pinus amabilis, Douglas, Comp. Bot. Mag. ii. 93 (name only) (1836); Antoine, Conif. 63 (1846).
- Pinus grandis, Don, in Lambert, Pinus, iii. t. (1837).
- Picea amabilis, Loudon, Arb. et Frut. Brit. iv. 2342 (in part) (1838).
A tree sometimes attaining in America 250 feet in height and 18 feet in girth, but at high altitudes and in the north usually not more than 80 feet. Bark thin, smooth, pale or silvery white ; becoming, on very old trunks, thick near the ground and irregularly divided into small scaly plates. Buds small, globose, resinous, smooth, with purple scales all immersed in the resin, except occasionally two or three, small and keeled, at the base of the bud. Young shoots grey, smooth, densely covered with short, loose, wavy pubescence.
Leaves on lateral branches arranged as in A. Nordmanniana, up to 1¼ to 1½ inch long by 1⁄14 inch broad, fragrant, linear, flattened, gradually tapering from the middle to the base, slightly broader in the anterior half, with a truncate and bifid apex ; upper surface very dark green and lustrous, with a continuous median groove and without stomata; lower surface with two broad white bands of stomata, each of eight to ten lines; resin-canals marginal. Leaves on vigorous leading shoots acute with long rigid points, closely appressed or recurved near the middle. Leaves on cone-bearing branches upturned, acute or acuminate.
Cones ovoid-cylindric, slightly narrowing to the rounded apex, dark purple when growing, brown when mature; 3½ to 6 inches long by 2 to 2½ inches in diameter. Scales, 1 to 1⅛ inch wide, nearly as long as broad, inflexed at the upper rounded margin, gradually narrowing towards the base. Bracts rhombic or obovate- oblong ; lamina situated just above the base of the scale and ending in a long acuminate tip, which reaches half the height of the scale. Seeds light yellowish brown, ½ inch long, with oblique pale brown shining wings about ¾ inch long.
Abies amabilis resembles A. Nordmanniana in the arrangement and size of the leaves; but is readily distinguished from it by the small globose resinous buds. The leaves are also much darker, shining above, more truncate at the apex; and emit, especially when bruised, a strong fragrant odour which resembles that of mandarin orange peel. (A.H.)
Distribution and History
Abies amabilis occurs on mountain slopes and terraces from British Columbia southward along the Cascade Mountains to northern Oregon, and on the coast ranges of Oregon and Washington. According to Sargent, it attains its largest size on the Olympic Mountains, where it is the most common silver fir,