PINETUM BRITANNICUM.
accord with our own, we prefer to refer it to impel« obfervation on the part of Mr Brown or ourfelves,
inftead of, on fuch a (light difference, to affume his tree to be diftinft from the prefent, with which
it in all other refpefls correfponds. Seeds fmall, teftaceous brown, fub-triangular [fig. 13,
magnified]; the wings pale and oblong ovate [fig. 14, wings and feeds natural fize], break- V^ V^
ing readily from the feed.
This tree has been erroneoudy fuppofed to be the fame as Abies Mertmfitna, a fpecies from Sitka,
which was defcribed by Bongard in an article intitled " Obfervations on the Vegetation of the Ifland
of Sitcha," publifhed in the Memoircs de I Academic Imperiak dee Sciences de St Petersburg, 6th
feries, vol. ii. p. 119. They are certainly nearly allied to each other, the Sitka fpecies being no doubt
the representative of the Hemlock Spruce in that ifland, but they differ in the following particulars : both
are true Hemlock Spruces, but in this fpecies the pulvini are fmall and widely feparated, while in Bongard's
they are placed unufually clofe to each other. We know of no Hemlock Spruce which has them fo
clofe to each other, and Bongard, in his defcription, takes particular notice of this charafler.
| 8 He fays that " the branches and branchlets are very much tuberculated after the leaves have
J || fallen." Figs. 1 and 2 reprefent the pulvini on a branch and branchlet
>• * of this fpecies; fig. 1S (hews a portion of a twig of the true A. Merten- A g j ,
fia.no. The cones alfo are different. Fig. 7 (hews the cone of A. Albertiana, ifj ft)
and fig. 16 that of A. Mertenfiana. The fcales are differently fhaped [fee fig. ^ ^ ^
8, reprefenting the former, and figs. 17 and 18, the latter]. The defcription
of the fcale given by Bongard fufficiently indicates this form, it being faid to be kidney-fliaped, and
five lines broad, while Jeffrey's is in no refpefl kidney-lliapcd, but oblong-oval.
The fpecies is, moreover, diftantly related to A. Pattoniana and A. Hookeriana; but even in
the young ftate an examination of the leaves with a lens will at once diftinguilh them. A. Hookeriana
has the edges of the leaf entire. A. Pattoniana and this fpecies have a tendency to ferratlon. A.
Pattoniana has ftomata irregularly fcattered on the upper fide of the leaf, while this fpecies and A.
Hookeriana have not. The leaves of A. PaUomam and A. Haokmam have a (hort flat footftalk
Thofe of this fpecies have a longer one. The cones are wholly different, that of this fpecics being much
fmaller than that of the others, and having fpecific differences in fliape, form of the bra& &c„ for which
reference may be made to the defcription of the fpecies themfelves.
Mr Gordon defcribes it as A. Mertenfiana in his " Pinetum." He has there imported into what
appears a defcription taken from young plants, part of Bongard's defcription, which is inconfiftent with
that of this fpecies I for inflance, that the fcales of the cone are kidney-lhaped, and that the branchlets
are "much tuberculated when old, from the falling leaves." A mifreading of Bongard's defcription, no
doubt, for he (Bongard) merely fays, "branches and branchlets exceffively tuberculated when the leaves
have fallen;" and fays nothing about its happening when old, a character which can only have crept in per
murium, for it is furely not lefs inconfiftent with nature than it is with this fpecies to have a tree which is
not much tuberculated, from the fall of the leaves when young, becoming fo when old ; the ufual courfe of
events being, that with age the tubercles (or pulvini) wholly difappear. In his "Supplement," Mr Gordon
abandons the tuberculation, and fays that the bark is much divided by fiffures on the items of old trees,
but fomewhat fmooth on the younger ones. This frelh information as to the fiffures on old trees has
probably been obtained from fome of the collators in California, unlefs, indeed, it be a new reading of
Bongard's term " hibernations." We have as yet no old trees in Britain, and we cannot find in any
author to whofe works we have accefs fuch a ftatement as the above. Mr Gordon alfo gives Lewis and
Clarke's A. heterophylla, Rafinefque, as a fynonym of this fpecics. Their A. hcterophylla, however, is one
of the fpecies which they have left as a puzzle to botanifts; and although Mr Gordon is probably happier
in this guefs than he often is in his conjectures as to fynonymy, the information left by thefe travellers is too
meagre to warrant more than a cautious guefs or a guarded fuggeftion as to their identity.
The chief, if not the only fpecialty, in which the account of A. heterophylla agrees with this fpecies
is the cone, which is defcribed as being not longer than the end of a man's thumb, foft, flexible, of an ovate
form,
A B I E S A L B E R T I A N A 3
form, and produced at the end of the fmall twigs. The other points in which it coincides with this fpecies
are common to mod Firs, and it difagrees with it in refembling a Spruce, in having its dem terminating like
the Cedar in a flender-pointed top, in being 180 feet inftead of 100, and in other minor particulars. Still,
the fize of the cone is a great leading point;—we know no other Fir as yet defcribed from North-weft
America, with a cone which could well be confounded with this except A. Mertenfiana, fo that it is not
unlikely that the difcrepancies are referable to error or want of care in the defcription, and that A.
heterophylla is rightly referred by Mr Gordon to this fpecies. The defcription, however, is too vague to
warrant citation. We have long thought that the irreconcilability of fome of Lewis and Clarke's fpecies
with any fpecies now known, is to be accounted for on the fuppofition that the fpecimens brought home
by thefe gentlemen had been entrufted, along with the notes relating to them, to Rafinefque to defcribe,
and that, if no previous jumbling of fpecimens and labels had taken place, fuch a confufion occurred while
they were in his hands. If the botanift will read his defcriptions with this light, and feparate the purely
botanical part of them, which could be done at home by the examination of dried fpecimens, from what
may be called the field obfervations, which could only be made in the countiy where they grew, he will,
we think, fee ftrong reafon for fufpefling, as we do, that fome tranfpofition of labels and notes has taken
place, fo that the wrong technical defcription is credited with the hiftory belonging to fomething elfe.
When this is done a better guefs at the fpecies can be made; but ftill at the bell it is only a guefs, founded
on what we acknowledge to be a gratuitous affumption.
Defcription.—Of the appearance of this tree in its native woods, we have only the general defcription
that it is a fine graceful tree, too feet high. But, to judge from the young plants in this country, much
higher praife mull be awarded it. One of the oldeft fpecimens in this country is a plant raifed from the
firft importation, growing at the Cairnies, the property of Mr George Fatton, in Perthfhire. Sown in
1851, it has already reached the height of 20 feet, and forms a pile of thick foliage, out of which fpring
a multitude of young long whip-like Ihoots, which hang down in the moft graceful weeping faftlion. It is
from a photograph of that tree that the accompanying plate has been drawn.
Hißory.—The feed of this tree was font home by Jeffrey in the firft year of his expedition to Oregon,
under the name of A. taxifolia. He very probably called it fo under the imprefiion that it was A.
taxifolia of Lambert, by which name A. Douglafii had been firft diftinguilhed by that author. Whatever
might be his reafon, it was at once feen that taxifolia was a mifnomer. That name had already, before
Lambert publifhed it, been twice ufed, as a fynonym or for a variety of Abies [Picea] pectinata—viz., by
Desfontaine, Cat. Hort. Paris, 3d ed., p. 356; and Hiß. Arbr., ii. p. 579. It had been fimilarly applied
by Tournefort, Hiß., 585 ; and alfo ufed for P. Cephalonica by other horticultures. The name was for
fome time, however, ufed to diftinguifh the fpecies—as " J e f f r e y s taxifolia"—until fome identification or
defcription of it fhould be publifhed. On frefh arrivals of feed making their appearance, the fpecies feems
to have undergone examination, and to have been fuppofed to be Bongard's Abies Mertenfiana, at leaft it
has gradually afliimed this name, probably on the ftrength of Mr Gordon's authority, and is now extenfively
known and diftributed under it; fome good arboriculturifts, however, referving their opinion, and preferring
to diftinguifh it by the name of the Californian Hemlock Spruce.
In his defcription, Bongard omits to give any information as to the fize of his tree, but in the
" Catalogue of Coniferous Trees " publifhed in the fifth volume of the Horticultural Society's Journal, it is
faid, on the .authority of F. Rauch, to be a branching " fhrub like Abies Canadenfis." This moft probably
has reference to the Sitka tree ; Gordon in his " Pinetum" fays the fpecies is 100 to 150 feet high ; which,
no doubt, refers to the Oregon tree.
The materials upon which we have formed our opinion, fo far as regards dried fpecimens and young
plants of the prefent fpecies, are the following; and although lefs extended as regards A. Mertenfiana, are
ftill fufficient to make it clear that the two plants are diftind: The fpecimens of this fpecies collected
by Jeffrey are preferved in the Kew and Edinburgh Botanical Mufeums, and young plants are to be
[ 11 ] B had