Mr. Hunnewell’s pinetum, Wellesley, Mass. :1 Mr. Hall's garden, near Bristol, Rhode Island; and Mr. Hoope’s pinetum, West Chester, Pennsylvania. Sargent states that the tree does not thrive in western Europe, as the young shoots, which appear early in the spring, are killed by late frosts; and in consequence it is not propagated by nurserymen. Seeds from wild trees are difficult to procure. (A.H.)
ABIES NORDMANNIANA, Caucasian Fir
- Abies Nordmanniana, Spach, Hist. Vég. xi. 418 (1842); Regel, in Gartenflora, xx. 259, t. 699 (1871); J.D. Hooker, Bot. Mag. t. 6992 (1888); Masters, Gard. Chron. xxv. 142, f. 30 (1886); Kent, Veitch’s Man. Conifere, 526 (1900).
- Pinus Nordmanniana, Steven, Bull. Soc. Nat. Moscow, xi. 45, t. 2 (1838); Loudon, Gard. Mag. XV. 225 (1839).
- Picea Nordmanniana, Loudon, Encycl. Trees, 1042 (1842).
A tree attaining in the Caucasus over 200 feet in height and 15 feet in girth. Bark in cultivated trees greyish brown, smooth when young, becoming slightly fissured in older trunks. Buds ovoid, acute at the apex, brown, non-resinous, with ovate, acute, slightly keeled scales. Young shoots grey, smooth, with very scattered short erect pubescence.
Leaves on lateral branchlets, pectinately arranged below, the two lateral sets spreading more or less in the horizontal plane ; those above shorter, directed forwards and densely covering the branchlet in imbricated ranks. Leaves linear, flattened, about 1 to 11⁄4 inch long, 1⁄10 to 1⁄12 inch wide, uniform in width except at the gradually tapering base; apex rounded and bifid; upper surface dark green, shining, with a continuous median groove and without stomata; lower surface with two con- spicuously white bands of stomata, each of eight or nine lines ; resin-canals marginal. Leaves on cone-bearing branches all curved and upturned.
Staminate flowers ovoid-cylindric, 4⁄10 inch long, each with three series of involucral bracts.
Cones sub-sessile, cylindrical, tapering at both ends, about 6 inches long by 2 inches in diameter, brown in colour, with the bracts exserted and reflexed. Scales: lamina, about 11⁄4 inch wide by 3⁄4 inch long, either with a denticulate wing on each side or with straight lateral margins; claw obcuneate. Bract with oblong claw, expanding above into an almost orbicular lamina, which is denticulate and tipped with a long triangular mucro. Seed with wing about an inch long, the wing being twice the length of the body of the seed.
Varieties and Hybrids
Several varieties are mentioned by Beissner, which are said to differ from the
type in foliage, the leaves being shorter, glaucous, or yellow in colour. None of these appear to be in cultivation in England.
1 Elwes saw this tree in May 1905, and remarked that it was very similar in growth to A. Nordmanniana, which has shorter darker leaves and denser habit. It had not suffered from the severe frost of the preceding winter which in some places had injured the Caucasian fir. According to Sargent, The Pinetum at Wellesley in 1905, p. 12, this tree is 49 feet high and 5 feet in girth.
