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short triangular cusp and without any emargination. In cultivated specimens, cones very large, 6 to 8 inches long, 2 to 3 inches in diameter, bluish when growing, brownish when mature, cylindrical, slightly tapering to an obtuse apex ; scales much broader than in wild specimens (1¼ inch); bracts only extending to about half the height of the scale, with a broad rectangular claw, only slightly narrower than the broadly ovate denticulate lamina, which is tipped with a short triangular cusp: seed with wing about an inch long; wing broadly trapezoidal, shining brown, and about 1½ times as long as the seed.

The cones of Abies Pindrow are very similar, the main difference being that in the latter the expanded portion of the bract is situated close to the lower edge of the scale, and is oval, less finely denticulate, and emarginate above with a minute mucro in the emargination.

The above description, which, as regards the leaves and branchlets, applies to ordinary cultivated specimens of Abies Webbiana, also fits exactly the form of that species which occurs in Sikkim, and does not differ from the original description which was founded on specimens from Nepal. The high-level silver fir, how- ever, which occurs in the western Himalayas appears to be a much shorter- leaved tree than that which is common in Sikkim; and has been supposed by some to be a form of Abies Pindrow. This form, which is apparently the same as specimens collected on the Chor mountain near Simla by Sir George Watt, is met with occasionally in cultivation, and may be distinguished as follows:—

Var. brevifolia,’ a tree with smooth bark on the stem and branches. Young branchlets grey, with only slightly prominent pulvini; pubescence short, erect, brown, confined to the indistinct fine grooves between the pulvini. Leaves much shorter than in the type, not exceeding 1¼ inch in length, greyish beneath with two inconspicuous stomatic bands.

This variety differs in appearance from the type, which has longer leaves, very silvery white beneath; but agrees with it in the arrangement, texture, and shape of the leaves. The grey colour and comparative smoothness of the branchlets, and the smooth bark on the stem and branches, suggest some affinity with A. Pindrow ; but the long, slender, narrow leaves of the latter species, differently arranged on the glabrous branchlets, are entirely different.

I first received cultivated specimens of this variety from Glasnevin, Kilma- curragh, and Batsford Park, where there are young trees, which have not yet produced cones. The Glasnevin and Kilmacurragh trees were raised from seed, sent from the Himalayas in 1879, but without any record of the precise locality ; and they resemble the type in habit. The origin of the Batsford tree is obscure.

1 Brandis, in Indian Trees, 692 (1906), distinguishes two forms of A. Webbiana, viz.:—
(a) "A. Webbiana, Lindley. High Level Silver Fir of N.W. Himalaya.” This is identical with our var. brevifolia, and is not the same as A. Webbiana, Lindley.
(b) “A. densa, Griffith. East Himalayan Silver Fir.” This, from a comparison of type specimens in the Kew Herbarium, is identical with A. Webbiana, Lindley, which was founded on Pinus Webbiana, Wallich, described from Nepal specimens.