ABIES PECTINATA, Common Silver Fir
- Abies pectinata, De Candolle, in Lamarck, Flore Franç. iii, 276 (1805); Willkomm, Forstliche Flora, 112 (1887); Mathieu, Flore Forestière, 525 (1897); Kent, Veitch’s Man. Coniferæ, 530 (1900).
- Abies alba,) Miller, Dict. ed. 8, No. 1 (1768); Kirchner, Lebengesch. Blütenpfl. Mitteleuropas, i. 78 (1904).
- Abies vulgaris, Poiret, in Lamarck, Dict. vi. 514 (1804).
- Abies Picea, Lindley, Penny Cycl. i. 29 (not Miller) (1833).
- Pinus Picea, Linnæus, Sp. Pl. 1001 (1753).
- Pinus Abies, Du Roi, Obs. Bot. 39 (1771).
- Pinus pectinata, Lamarck, Fl. Franç. ii. 202 (1778).
- Picea pectinata, Loudon, Arb. et Frut. Brit. iv. 2329 (1838).
A tree attaining under favourable conditions about 150 feet in height and 20 feet or more in girth. Bark on young trees, smooth, greyish ; ultimately fissuring and becoming rough and scaly. Buds small, ovoid, non-resinous ; scales few, brownish, rounded at the apex. Young shoots grey, smooth, with a scattered short erect pubescence, which is retained in the second year.
Leaves on lateral branches pectinately arranged in two lateral sets ; those below the longest and directed outwards and slightly forwards in the horizontal plane ; those above directed upwards and outwards, forming between the two sets a shallow V-shaped depression. Leaves about 1 inch long, yy inch broad, linear, flattened, narrowed at the base, tapering slightly to the rounded, bifid apex; upper surface dark green, shining, with a continuous median groove and without stomata; lower surface with two white bands of stomata, each of seven to eight lines; resin-canals marginal.
On leading shoots the leaves are radially arranged, and differ considerably from those on lateral branches ; they are thicker, with median resin-canals, acute and not bifid at the apex, and often show lines of stomata on their upper surface towards the tip. Leaves on cone-bearing branches are nearly all directed upwards, very sharp- pointed, and almost tetragonal in section.
Trees, standing in an isolated position, usually begin to flower at about thirty years old; when crowded in dense forests, much later, usually not before sixty years old.
Staminate flowers, surrounded at the base by numerous imbricated scales, cylindrical, about 1 inch long, with greenish-yellow stamens. Female cones, appearing in August of the previous year as large rounded buds, enclosed in brown scales, and situated just behind the apex of the shoot ; in spring, when developed, erect, cone-shaped, about 1 inch long, surrounded at the base by fringed scales ; bracts numerous, imbricated, denticulate, ending in long, acuminate points, and completely concealing the much smaller ovate, rounded ovuliferous scales.
1 Abies alba, the oldest name under the correct genus, was never in use until lately, when it has been resuscitated by
Sargent and some continental botanists. This is one of the cases where adhesion to strict priority would lead to great con-
fusion ; and hence we have adopted the name Abies pectinata, by which the tree is generally known.
