Page:TheTreesOfGreatBritainAndIreland vol04B.djvu/69

Var. equi-Trojani, Guinier and Maire.’ A peculiar form, discovered by Sintenis on Mount Ida in north-west Anatolia. It has reddish-brown glabrous shoots, leaves acute at the apex and only slightly emarginate, and cones with bracts much exserted and almost concealing the scales.

The hybrids, which have been obtained between A. Nordmanniana and A. Pinsapo are dealt with in our article on the latter species,

This species is a native of the mountains in the southern and south-eastern shores of the Black Sea, including the western spurs of the Caucasus. According to Radde,’ it is entirely absent from the eastern parts of the Caucasus and Talysch, its easterly limit being longitude 42°. It usually grows between 3000 and 6600 feet elevation, and either forms pure forests or is associated with Picea orientalis, being occasionally mixed both with that species and Pinus sylvestris. It is said to prefer calcareous soil and to be dominant on the limestone formations, which are not so favourable to the growth of the oriental spruce and the common pine. In pure forests, the trees stand very close together; and in their deep shade underwood is absent and no light reaches the ground, which is very dry and covered with a thick layer of brown needles. Such forests are the last hiding-place of the European bison in a truly wild condition.

The largest tree mentioned by Radde, the age of which is not given, grew in the valley of the Labba in the district of Kuban, and measured 213 feet in height and 15 feet in girth at breast height, and the stem alone had a volume of 1236 cubic feet. On an area of about 2½ acres in this forest fifteen trees nearly as large were growing. It thrives best and attains its largest size at high elevations, 5000 to 6000 feet; where stems 150 to 170 feet in height, with a girth of 10 feet, are quite common. The oldest tree, which is recorded by Radde, was 370 years old, and measured 170 feet high by 10 feet in girth.

Abies Nordmanniana was also found by Balansa* in Lazistan, and by Sintenis® at Kostambul in Paphlagonia. Guinier and Maire* in 1904 found it growing on Mount Olympus in Bithynia, where, on the northern slope between 3700 and 6000 feet, it forms extensive forests, either pure or mixed with Pinus Laricio, beech, oak, and chestnut, and constituting the timber line at 6300 feet. These botanists state that on Olympus, as well as in the Caucasus, it is a light-demanding tree, a least in the young stage, as the seeds everywhere germinate in open and unshaded places. The discovery by these authors of A. Nordmanniana on Mount Olympus and of the var. egui-Trojani on Mount Ida extends the distribution of this species westwards through northern Asia Minor to the borders of the Ægean Sea.

1 In Bull. Soc. Bot. France, lv. 186, fig. 1 (1908). This variety was referred to 4. pectinata by Boissier, in Fl. Orientalis, v. 701 (1881).

2 Pflanzenverb. Kaukasusländ, 184, 222, 244, etc. (1899).

3 Specimens in Kew herbarium.

4 In Bull. Soc. Bot. France, v. 185, fig. 1 (1908). The silver fir on Mount Olympus was erroneously identified with A. pectinata by Boissier in Flora Orientalis, v. 701 (1881).