ABIES LASIOCARPA, Rocky Mountain Fir
- Abies lasiocarpa, Nuttall, Sylva, iii. 138 (1849); Masters, Gard. Chron. v. 172; ff. 23-27, 32; (1889), and Journ. Bot. xxvii. 129 (1889); Sargent, Silva N. Amer. xii. 113, t. 611 (1898), and Trees N. Amer. 61 (1905); Kent, Veitch’s Man. Coniferæ, 515 (1900).
- Abies bifolia, Murray, Proc. Roy. Hort. Soc. iii. 320 (1863).
- Abies subalpina, Engelmann, Am. Nat. x. 555 (1876).
- Abies arizonica, Merriam, Proc. Biol. Soc. Wash. x. 115, ff. 24, 25 (1896).
- Pinus lasiocarpa, W. J. Hooker, Fl. Bor. Am. ii. 163 (1839).
- Picea bifolia, Murray, Gard. Chron. iii. 106 (1875).
- Picea lasiocarpa, Murray, Gard. Chron. iv. 135 (1875).
A tree, attaining occasionally 175 feet in height, with a trunk 15 feet in girth, but usually not over 80 to 100 feet high. Bark of young trees smooth and silvery grey ; of old trees shallowly fissured and roughened by reddish brown or whitish scales; in some trees becoming corky and white in colour. Buds small, about } inch long, ovoid-conical, obtuse at the apex, brownish, resinous ; scales embedded in the resin but roughening the surface of the bud by their raised tips. Branchlets swollen at the nodes, those of the first year ashy grey, smooth, and covered with a moderately dense short wavy pubescence. Branchlets of the second year retaining some pubescence, darker grey, smooth, with the bark slightly fissuring.
Leaves on lateral branchlets irregularly arranged; sometimes irregularly pectinate with some of the leaves above and below not directed outwards, but forwards at an angle with the axis of the shoot; usually with most of the leaves directed upwards, those in the middle line above covering the shoot and standing. edgeways with their apices almost vertical, a few leaves in the middle line below pointing forwards and downwards. Leaves linear, up to 1½ inch long by 1⁄12 inch broad, uniform in width except at the gradually tapering base ; apex rounded and either entire or with a slight emargination ; upper surface with a shallow continuous median groove, and with four to five lines of stomata on each side of the groove in its anterior half, the lines fewer in number and broken in the basal half; under surface with two bands of stomata, each of six to eight lines; resin-canals median. The stomatic lines above give the foliage a glaucous appearance; the bands below vary very much in whiteness. Leaves on leading shoots closely appressed to the stem with their tips directed forwards, flattened in section, and ending in long slender rigid points. Leaves on cone-bearing branchlets upturned, directed forwards, usually acute and not more than ½ inch long.
Cones sub-sessile, cylindrical ; rounded, truncate or depressed at the slightly narrowed apex; 2 to 4 inches long by 1½ inch in diameter, dark purple and tomentose, with the bracts concealed.'_ Scales very variable in size and shape, from ⅞ inch long by ¾ inch wide to ½ inch long by 1 inch wide: lateral margins rounded or with sinuses, usually auricled on each side of the short obcuneate claw. Bract situated at the base of the scale or slightly above it, quadrangular or
1 According to Piper, Contrib. U.S. Nat. Herb. xi. 93 (1906), cones on trees growing in the Olympic Mountains have exserted bracts.
