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ABIES NUMIDICA, Algerian Fir
- Abies numidica, De Lannoy, ex Carrière, Rev. Hort. 1866, pp. 106, 203 ; Van Houtte, Flore des Serves, xvii. 9, t. 1717 (1867); Masters, Gard. Chron. iii. 140 (in part and excluding figures) (1888); Trabut, Rev. Gén. Bot. i. 405, ff. 17, 18 (1889); Kent, Veitch’s Man. Coniferæ, 529 (1900).
- Abies Pinsapo, Boissier, var. baborensis, Cosson, Bull. Soc. Bot. France, viii. 607 (1861).
- Abies baborensis, Letourneux, Cat. Arb. et Arbust. d'Algérie (1888).
- Pinus Pinsapo, Parlatore, DC. Prod. xvi. 2, p. 423 (in part) (1868).
- Picea numidica, Gordon, Pinet. 220 (1875).
A tree attaining 70 feet in height and 8 feet in girth. Bark grey, smooth in young trees, becoming scaly and fissured on old trunks. Buds large, ovoid, acute at the apex, non-resinous ; scales ovate, acute, with white scarious margins, usually free at the apex. Young shoots brown, shining, glabrous, with slightly raised pulvini but without grooves.
Leaves on lateral branches pectinate below, the two lateral sets directed outwards in the horizontal plane; those above shorter, crowded, directed upwards, and either, as on weak shoots, forming a narrow V-shaped pectinate arrangement, or, on strong shoots, with the median leaves directed backwards (not seen in any other species) and covering the upper side of the branchlet. Leaves short, 1⁄2 to 3⁄4 inch long, 1⁄12 inch broad, linear, flattened, gradually tapering to the base, broadest above the middle or uniform in width in the upper three-fourths, rounded at the apex, which is sometimes entire but usually slightly bifid; upper surface dark green, shining, with the median groove often faint and rarely continued to the apex, in many leaves with four to six broken lines of stomata in the middle line near the apex; under surface with two white bands of stomata, each of about eight to nine lines; resin-canals marginal. Leaves on cone-bearing branches all more or less upturned, those of the middle ranks also directed slightly backwards, short, rigid, rounded and entire at the apex.
Cones on short stout stalks, brownish, cylindrical with an obtuse apex and tapering base, about 5 inches long by 11⁄2 inch in diameter, with the bracts entirely concealed. Scales; lamina fan-shaped, 11⁄4 inch wide, 3⁄4 inch long, upper margin almost entire, lateral margins denticulate and either straight or with a wing on each side above; claw short, obcuneate. Bracts, scarcely reaching half the height of the scales, with a broad oblong claw and an expanded ovate denticulate lamina, which is acuminate or cuspidate at the mucronate apex. Seed with wing about an inch long; wing about 11⁄2 times as long as the body of seed. Cones of cultivated trees have smaller scales with more developed lateral wings; and shorter bracts, scarcely reaching 1⁄4 the height of the scale.
The seedlings of this species have been fully described by Fliche.’
1 In Bull. Soc. Forest. Franche-Conté et Belfort, 1903, p. 168.