The cones mature in a single season from the flowers.

When mature they are about six to eight inches long, three or four in diameter, covered with a fine gray down and streaked and beaded with transparent balsam, very rich and precious-looking, and stand erect like casks on the topmost branches.

The inside of the cone is, if possible, still more beautiful.

The scales and bracts are tinged with red and the seed-wings are purple with bright iridescence.

Both of the silver firs live between two and three centuries when the conditions about them are at all favorable.