PINETUM BRITANNICUM.
leaf fo much narrower, and the ftomata fo much fewer (but larger and variolofe, i. e., pitted), that it has
been fuppofed to be a different fpecies ; but the odour of the cruihed leaves or cut twig (which is an admirable
aid in determining upon doubtful fpecies) betrays its origin, and fhews that it is nothing but a variety
of P. nobilis.
Geographical Dijlribution.—Vound in many parts of Oregon and Northern California, from the banks
of the Columbia fouthwards to the Shafta Mountains. It grows at an elevation of from 6000 to 8000 feet;
and the ground was covered with fnow when Beardfley collected its feeds in Oaober 1856. Nuttall
mentions, on the authority of Dr Gairdner, that fpccimens were brought from the Falls of the Columbia
to Vancouver's Ifland by the Indians; but we have not met with any notice of its having been actually
found north of the Columbia.
HiJIory.—The account of the difcovery of this Pine by Douglas, is more meagre than thofe we have
of moft of his other introductions. In 1830 a domeftic revolution took place in the management of the
Horticultural Society, in confequence of which Mr Sabine, the Honorary Secretaiy, refigned his office.
Douglas, whofe feelings were warm and affectionate, on becoming acquainted with this, feems to have
taken it perfonally to heart, and, identifying himfelf with Mr Sabine, felt called on to refign his appointment
of ColleCtor to the Society. Notwithftanding this, he ftill fent his collections as a prefent to the
Society, but the tranfmiffion of his journals ceafed; and to this untoward event, arifing wholly from mifunderltanding,
is to be attributed the lofs of the latter portion of his journals. To the Horticultural
Society, during the former expedition, they were from time to time carefully defpatched, and are by them
ftill carefully preferved; but now there was no one to whom he was bound to communicate the refult of his
inveftigations and labours ; and with the remnant of his collections fent home after his death no journal
appeared, fave that of his voyage from the Columbia to the Sandwich Iflands, and his afcent of the Mouna
Roa. All that is known, therefore, after 1830, of his excurfionsto the Hudfon's Bay Company's Territories,
and in California, where he reaped fuch a glorious harveft of plants, is obtained from his letters to his friends.
In a letter, publilhed in a memoir of him, in the " Companion to the Botanical Magazine," vol. ii. p. 147,
dated " Entrance of River Columbia, 1 ith October 1830," he fays:—" I have now juft faved the failing of
the fliip ; and, after fixty days of fevere fatigue, have undergone, as I can affure you, one of ftill more trying
labour, in packing up three chefts of feeds, and writing to Mr Sabine and his brother. . . . The
captain only waits for this letter, after which the (hip bears away for old England. I am truly forry to
fee her go without my dried plants, but this is unavoidable, as I have not a bit of well-feafoned wood
in which to place them, and fliould, moreover, be unwilling to rifk the whole collection in one veffel; and
the fails are already unfurled, fo that it would be impoffible to attempt dividing them. I however tranfmit
one bundle of fix fpecies, exceedingly beautiful, of the genus Pinus. Among thefe, P. nobilis is by
far the fineft. I fpent three weeks in a forcft compofed of this tree, and day by day could not ceafe to
admire it; in faCt, my words can be only monotonous expreffions of this feeling.'
The feeds which accompanied thefe fpecimens arrived in good condition, and were succcfsfully grown.
The young plants were diftributed among the Fellows of the Society, and no fooner began to (hew what
the tree really was, than it leaped into univerfal favour. Extravagant prices were given for it: fifteen and
twenty guineas being then no unufual price to be paid for a fine young plant. As it ufually docs, the
demand called forth a fupply; but for a long time this fupply was in a great meafure obtained by making
cuttings and grafts from the older plants. Indeed, even to the prefent day, a large portion of the young
plants fold is manufactured in this way. Plants grown from this fource, however, feldom reach the fame
beauty as the feedling tree. The cuttings, being of courfe taken from the branches, often grow like a
branch, retaining their one-fided inclination, fending out a flat horizontal leader and two fide-branches, inltead
of an erect one with a circlet of four or five branches, and it then requires a good deal of training and pruning,
fometimes
PICEA NOBILIS. 5
fometimes for years, to bring thefe one-fided plants into the (hape of a good tree. The procefs of making
plants out of grafts and cuttings, alfo, was not well underftood, and was tedious. It confequently became
an object of importance to procure frefh fupplies of feed from its native country, and various more or lefs
fuccefsful attempts have been made. No more could be looked for from Douglas. His wanderings were
over. He had found a grave in an ifland in the far Pacific. The firft attempt to procure it fubfequent
to Douglas's importation was made by His Grace the Duke of Bedford, the fame duke by whom the " Pinetum
Woburnenfe" was publiflied, or rather printed for private circulation. He took into his counfels,
and we believe as an affociate in the enterprife, Mr Cuningham, of Comely Bank Nurfery, near Edinburgh,
a nurferyman well known for his horticultural fkill and zeal, as well as for the number of curious and
rare plants he had accumulated in his nurfery. Thefe gentlemen engaged a collector, Mr Peter Banks,
to travel in California and Oregon (at that time ftill a fealed region to all but the hunter of the Far Weft),
for the purpofe of continuing the explorations which Douglas had begun, but more efpecially to procure
feeds of this Pine. He reached his ground, and fent home a fmall package of it and of fome other feeds,
and was preparing to fend a larger quantity when he fuddenly difappeared. The ftory which reached this
country was, that he and three other men were upfet in attempting to crofs one of the rivers. One
efcaped to tell the tale ; but Mr Banks and the other two were drowned. At any rate, he has never fince
been heard of, and nothing further was done until the difcovery of the gold diggings of California threw
open the country. Hartweg, indeed, was fent out in 1846 by the Horticultural Society to Mexico and
California; but he did not travel fo far north as to reach the diftriCt of the P. nobilis. The firft who
availed themfelves of the altered ftate of things brought about by that difcovery, were the Edinburgh
Oregon Botanical Affociation. Jeffrey, a young collector, was fent out by them under very favourable
aufpices, and a good fupply of the feeds of P. nobilis was forwarded by him to this country; but not a
plant came up. Various were the theories devifed to account for this failure, and not little was the blame
thrown upon Jeffrey for its having happened: he had plucked old cones; he had fent the feed home
(helled inftead of in the cone; he had not properly dried it; he had done this, or neglected to do that.
In fhort, the feeds had not grown, and the fault muft be Jeffrey's. But, fo far as regards this matter,
he was blamed unjuftly. The feeds were neither gathered too old nor too young, neither did they
fuffer from the mode of packing; indeed they could not, for before ever they were packed, before ever
they were plucked, nay, while ftill in the green and foft ftate, they had been penetrated by an infect
which had riddled and deftroyed them all. The feeds he fent home were found to be all fo riddled ;
and although at the time it was thought that fome infeCt had attacked them on the way home
and done the mifchief, it is now perfectly afcertained that this mifchief is done at an early ftage, and
while the cone is ftill on the tree, as it is only when the cone is in a foft and young ftate that the infect
could penetrate the hufk of the feed. The next explorers were Mr William Murray and Mr Beardfley,
who made two or three expeditions into the interior in fearch of this and other Pines ; and it is to their
exertions that we owe a great proportion of the feedlings of P. nobilis now in this country. They went
fully prepared to guard againft any failure from the mode of packing or gathering the feed. They took care
that the cones gathered (liould be frefh and apparently found ; that the feed fliould be ripe: and, to guard
againft heating, they fent the feeds home in the cone; and, againft the attacks of infeCts, they packed them
among camphor and other fuppofed fearers of infeCts. But before they began their gathering, they faw
that their precautions would be for the moft part vain: the feeds, while in the green ftate, were found to
have been penetrated by an infeCt. It was then that its egg was laid, and it muft have been laid moft
methodically, fo as not to omit almoft a fingle feed in a cone; and the grub fed on the feed, grew with its
«•rowth, and ftrengthened with its decay. An examination of hundreds of cones (hewed a grub in almoft
every feed. With their eyes open to this, and picking with the greatcft care the cones which feemed to
have fuffered leaft, they fent home an envoi, which perhaps produced a fcore of plants out of a large cafeful
of feed. Their fecond expedition was more fuccefsful. The feed was freer from the attacks of the infeCt,
although far from free from them. A third envoi again was a failure. It is a curious circumftance, faid to
[ 1 ] c be