8 P I N E T U M BRITANNICUM.
dimensions of the British Columbian monarchs. Dr Engelmann, it would appear, never saw the trees himself,
for he speaks of the appearance of A. Menziesii as communicated to him by Dr Parry, and if he had
seen the one he must have seen the other; and Dr Parr}', in the supplement to his collection in the Rocky
Mountains, describes the Douglas Spruce found at Pikes Peak as " a very slightly tree, of the average height
of 80 feet." It would appear, therefore, that we have here come upon a tree of a different character from
the typical one in British Columbia.
One of the United States Pacific Railroad Expeditions (that under Capt. Gunnyon, who, with his
party, was massacred by the Indians not very far from this region) crossed the Rocky Mountains about a
degree farther south ; but in the list of plants collected there by M. Creutzfeldt, and named by Dr Torrey and
Professor Asa Gray, Abies Douglasii does not occur. There is, indeed, an Abies named by Lambert Abies
taxifolia ("Genus Pinus," t. 47), marked as found at Roubideau's Pass (38° N. lat.), and this Abies taxifolia
is admitted by all to be A. Douglasii; but the A. taxifolia from Roubideau's Pass cannot be it, for the
descriptive memorandum mentions that the leaves are glaucous on both sides, which is not the case with
A. Douglasii, and is veiy markedly figured, as the reverse in Lambert's A. taxifolia. The cones of this
species were not seen, and it may very possibly turn out to be new.
A stage farther to the south on the Rocky Mountains supplies us with a continuation of Abies Douglasii.
The United States Pacific Railroad Expedition, under Lieut. Wipple, explored the country in the line of
the 350 parallel, and the tree was found not only on the Rocky Mountains, but on various other mountain
ranges, reaching, with interruptions, all the way to the Pacific. What inference should be drawn from these
interruptions, and what value should be attached to them, we shall endeavour presently to estimate. Dr
Bigelow, who was with that Expedition, gives a summary of the places where the different trees were met
with, and an ingenious profile map to shew the elevations at which they were found. From these we learn
that the first place (coming from the eastward) where they met with the Abies Douglasii was on the Sandia
Mountains, at an elevation of from 6000 to 10,000 feet. These mountains lie a little to the west of what
may be reckoned the easternmost ridge of the Rocky Mountains, and there it was abundant. They next
found it on what is called the Sierra Madre, at an elevation of from 7000 to 8000 feet, about 90 miles west
of the Rio Grande, and there, also, it was abundant. They again observed it, but very sparingly, in the
mountains around Zuni. After crossing the Rio Colorado Chiquito, they came to a range of mountains,
of which the most elevated peaks were San Francisco Mountain, Bill Williams Mountain, and Mount
Sitgreaves, where it was abundant, at an elevation of from 7000 to 10,000 feet. There was a belt of 44
miles or more in width, stretching in a south-easterly direction to the Mogoyon (Mogollon) or Sierra Blanca,
probably as far as the head waters of the Gila. At the Copper Mines near the Gila, Dr Bigelow,
while connected with the Mexican Survey, had previously found it in abundance, as well as at the Organ
Mountains near Donna Anna. At Aztec Pass, 100 miles west of San Francisco Mountain, it was found
again, but not so abundantly as at the latter mountain.
Now, all the above localities, although separated from each other by intervals of 30, 40, or 60 miles, are
in fact part of the Rocky Mountain range. At about 40° that range widens out southwards, encroaching
upon the desert basins to its west, and breaking into many parallel as well as transverse ranges. The above
habitats are all on one or other of the ranges, and they can only be considered as different parts of one whole.
The Abies Douglasii at all of them are of the same character as those found by Dr Parry at Pikes Peak.
Dr Bigelow says of them: "On the mountains of the Sierra Madre, east and west of the Rio Grande, at
San Francisco Mount, and its vicinity near the two Colorados, at the Organ Mountains, and those of the
Mimbres near the Copper Mines, this tree grows from 90 to 120 feet in height, and from 3 to 6 feet in
diameter."
The next step westwards is not equally bridged over. That next step rests on the Sierra Nevada,
which, not far from this, turns westwards in its southern course, and combines with what, farther north, was
called the Coast Range. On it, and along the whole Coast Range as far as Los Angelos, the Abies Douglasii
A B I E S DOUGLASII.
was found in the greatest abundance, and at a much lower elevation than in the interior. There it was
never met with at a lower elevation above the sea than 6000 or 7000 feet. On the Sierra Nevada and
especially on the slope next the Pacific, it occurs as low as 2000, and extends upwards to 6000 feet; but, as
in the interior it did not reach higher than 10,000 feet, although the mountains might be a couple of
thousand feet higher (leaving the more lofty position to be occupied by Pinus flexilis), so here it stops
at about 6000 feet, although some of the peaks of the Sierra Nevada exceed 7000 feet in height.
The space between the Sierra Nevada and the Aztec Pass, where it had been last previously met with
by Dr Bigelow, is about 200 miles, as the crow flies ; and the Gila and Colorado flow down in the midst.
Two ranges of hills, or mountains, as they may be more properly called—reaching as they do to an elevation
the one of 5000 and the other of 6000 feet above the sea—occur between ; but Abies Douglasii was not
found upon them, and even although these ranges should be connected with the Rocky Mountain ranges,
still, if they nowhere reach a higher elevation than 6000 feet, it is not likely that it should be found upon
them, seeing that in all the other localities in the interior it does not appear until more than that height
above the sea. Supposing it not to do so, there would be left a blank between the Rocky Mountain habitats
and those on the Sierra Nevada: thus preserving a continued interruption running north and south in the
line of the Salt Lake Desert basins, between the interior, or Rocky Mountain Range, and the Coast Ranges.
So far as the Coast Range is concerned, there is little doubt that the tree runs, on the one hand, northwards
from Los Angelos, the point where it was touched by Dr Bigelow, to Santa Cruz, which is at the
gates of San Francisco, and on the same side of the bay; and, on the other hand, southwards, into the
peninsula of South California. We know that it is found in abundance at Santa Cruz, and the city of San
Francisco is said to be largely indebted to it for its existence, so much as a fourth of it being built on piles
made of the timber of the Douglas Spruce, driven 10 to 15 feet into the ground. We have no note of any
spot on the Coast Range where it has been observed south of Santa Cruz or Monterey, until we reach Los
Angelos, 300 miles farther south; but as we find it plentiful at Los Angelos, and extending both northwards
and southwards, we think that this is a case where we may safely trust to general report, and assume
that it extends all along the Coast Range for these 300 miles; and that the reason why we have no note of
its occurrence there, is simply that the district has not been visited by any botanist who has made his
observations public. From the United States Mexican Boundary Report, we know that it occurs at San
Diego, which is nearly 100 miles to the south of Los Angelos. How much farther south on the Coast
Range the tree grows, we do not know. Probably, when the altitude of the mountain gets below 2000 feet,
it will cease. If this is so, it will not extend far into Lower California.
To which type of the Douglas Spruce do those found on the Coast Range south of San Francisco belong5
There seems no reason to doubt that they all belong to the tall type of Oregon. As to those found at Santa
Cruz, Hartweg {Hort. Soc. Journ., vol. ii., 124) says:."Some fine trees of Abies Douglasii are found in the
mountains of Santa Cruz ; they do not form masses of themselves, but are thinly scattered among the Redwood
trees (Taxodium sempervirens), with which they vie in size;" and he has just before mentioned that the
Redwood trees there average 200 feet in size, and that one called "the giant of the forest," was 270 feet in
height. In the vicinity of San Francisco Bay it grows to a large size, being found on the northern slopes of
hills in Marin County, in little groves, in company with the Redwoods. As to those near Los Angelos and
San Diego, on the coast of California, Dr Bigelow, after specially mentioning that the trees found at the
places he mentions in the Rocky Mountains, grow only from 90 to 120 feet in height, immediately adds,
that " in California it is found of a much larger size, frequently attaining the height of 200 feet or more,
and from 6 to 9 feet in diameter." There is in the Kew Herbarium a specimen from Dr Bigelow, marked as
from "California, near the 350 parallel." This must be part of the collection made on the Expedition on
that parallel, from which we have taken the stations above mentioned, and collected, no doubt, on the Sierra
Nevada, near Los Angelos. It, however, does not tell much; the leaves seem likest those of the northern
type ; the cone, on the other hand, is a small specimen; but in points where there is so little difference, the
identity of the form cannot be determined by individual specimens; it must be by the general character of
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