Page:TheTreesOfGreatBritainAndIreland vol04B.djvu/67

in the Cilician Taurus, It was first discovered by Kotschy’ in the Cilician Taurus in August 1853, in the valley of Agatsch Kisse, at an elevation of 4000 to 5000 feet. It is known to the Turks as Az Lieden, white fir, and grows in thick forests sometimes unmixed with other trees, sometimes in company with oaks, cedars, and junipers. Yew and Pinus Laricio also occur in these forests, which are protected from woodcutters by their inaccessibility. The climate of these mountains is extremely hot in summer, and cold in winter, with much snow in the upper region.

Post? says that it is found in alpine and subalpine Lebanon, and in the Amanus Mountains in the extreme north of Syria, but does not give any details of its size or the elevation at which it grows.

The first seeds, received by the museum at Paris in 1854 from M. Blanch, French Consul at Saida, failed to germinate. Balansa sent a good supply of seed in 1855. From these or from Kotschy’s seed the few trees which we have found in England were probably raised.

The Cilician fir is extremely rare in cultivation in this country. The best speci- men we have found is a tree, growing at Welford Park, Newbury, which in 1908 was 51 feet by 4 feet 4 inches. Mr. Ross, the gardener, informs us that he found this tree as a small plant in a pot, when he came to Welford Park in May, 1860. The tree has been considered by many people to be Adzes homolepis, and was figured in the Garden, for 1904, under that name. It is unquestionably, however, Abies cilicica, of which it has the foliage, and only differs slightly from wild specimens in the smaller size of the cones and scales. Mr. A.B. Jackson has identified two at Bicton, 48 feet by 4 feet and 47 feet by 34 feet respectively ; and another at the Heath, Leighton Buzzard, which is 48 feet by 3 feet 10 inches.

The finest in Scotland is a tree at Durris, which Mr. Crozier reports to be 55 feet high and 5 feet 8 inches in girth. It was incorrectly labelled A. amabilis. Another good specimen is growing at Castle Kennedy, which measured in 1904, 48 feet in height by 5 feet 1 inch in girth. A second tree here, not so tall, is very thriving. Kent mentions a tree at Rossdhu in Dumbartonshire.

A tree at Glasnevin was 34 feet by 3 feet 2 inches in 1907; and a specimen, at Powerscourt, 37 feet by 2 feet 8 inches in 1906, did not seem to be very thriving.

There is a good specimen at Verrières; near Paris, of which a figure is given by M. Philippe L. de Vilmorin in Hortus Vilmorinianus (plate 1). This tree is about 60 feet high. Another and slightly taller tree is growing in the Parc de Cheverny, in the department of Loir et Cher. Pardé says that at Harcourt (Eure) it reproduces itself naturally.

According to Sargent,® Abies cilicica, with the exception of Abies concolor, is the most beautiful of those silver firs, which are perfectly hardy and satisfactory in the north-eastern states of the U.S. Some trees are 4o feet in height, notably at

1 Reise in den Cilicischen Taurus (1858).

2 Flora of Syria, p. 751.

3 Silva N. Amer. xii. 99 adnot. (1898).