z PINETUM BRITANNICUM.
of the under faee [fig. 7]i for the most part disposed distiehally on the older branehlets. but on the younger
ones also growing plentifully along their upper side, and more sparingly along the under side.
Male catkins growing from the lateral and under sides of the branehlets [see fig. 8], usually numerous ;
bright reddish fawn-eoloured, short, obtusely eonieal [fig. 9 and fig. to, the same magnified] springing from
a deep collar of numerous rich raw-sienna coloured scales, ol the same form as
those enveloping the buds, and longer than the rest of the catkins. The
scales at the base [fig. 1 1 ] are smaller and narrower, and more pointed than
the others, which are very broad, transverse, and concave [fig. 12]. The
stamens are short, have a peaked crest (not unlike that of Pirn noiilis), and
are spread like a hood on the anthers which burst below them. Figs. 13 and
,4 represent the stamen in the young state, and figs. 15 and 16 after the
anthers have burst. The cones (see plate) are pendent; Sabine supposed
that they were erect. This was
only half an error, for they are erect
in their first growth, but afterwards
they become pendent; they are terminal
at first, but young shoots
often spring up alongside of them
before they have fallen, making them
not entirely terminal. They are
fringed with a collar of long scales ^ ^ j^j ^
like the male catkins, and are ovate,
oblong, pale green at first, afterwards bright brown, with the bracts of the scales exsertcd. Scales [hgs. . 7
and 18, outer and inner view] not numerous, persistent, very concave,
coriaceous, ovate rounded, sometimes with the margin more or less
sinuate; margin entire. Bracts [fig. 19 shews one laid back from
" , the scale] long, linear, tricuspidate; the middle one longest, cartilan
_ f | f ; I gmous projecting forwards. Nuttal has figured them as reflexed,
0 XU at the apex but they are never so when growing. Some of them
r»... r%.... Fi-... may occasionally be seen reflexed in herbarium specimens, but this is
owing to accidental displacement in drying. Seeds and wing rather
short [figs. 20 and 21]. Wing not twice as long as the seed, obtusely -^ h Isemi
elliptic, back straight, pale chestnut brown. Seeds brown, lying C J ^r™®1
on the substance of the wing, which is continued under it. '' "' '
This species, as it grows in the coast regions of North-West America, is one of the grandest of the group
of giants which are found in the forests of that
country. Dr Cooper (" United States Pacific Railroad
Reports," xii. 2, p. 24) says that its trunk is
straight, commonly without branches for 50 feet or
;, and it reaches a height little short of 300 feet.
Dr Newberry saw several individuals of it which had
,i6„. r»,i »»,» T\g. ID. F».,. a diameter of 10 feet at 4 feet from the ground, and
an altitude of 300. And Dr Lyell (Proc. Linn. Soc.,
vii., p. 133) says that several specimens which he measured in the neighbourhood of Sumass, in British
Columbia, were nearly 30 feet in circumference at 5 feet from the ground; 250 feet was the measured length
of one that had been blown down; but some which he saw must (he says) have been considerably higher
than this.
Dr Lindley ("Penny Cyclopaedia," i., p. 32) mentions (probably on the authority of Douglas) that when he
wrote
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