TO THE HISTORY OF CERTAIIS" CONIFERS. 211 



be found the tree growing in the vicinity of a Buddhist monas- 

 tery near Chekiang. The trunk of one specimen had a girth of 

 5 feet and a height of 120 or 130 feet. At Quanting, 20 miles 

 away from the first locality, Fortune came upon a sloping hill 

 *^ covered with the beautiful object of our search." The treea 

 he notes all appeared to have been planted. *' One tree in par- 

 ticular seemed the Queen of the Forest, the trunk measuring 

 8 feet in circumference and 130 feet in height, with the lower 

 branches nearly touching the ground," The circumstance that 

 the trees appear to have been planted is of importance with re- 

 ference to the origin of the tree. Two explanations have been 

 offered of the fact that curious trees, such, for instance, as the 

 Abies Fortimei^ are found ia the vicinity of temples and monas- 

 teries in Japan, China, Sikkim, Tibet, and other Buddhist 

 countries. One explanation is that the trees have been brought 

 from elsewhere by the Buddhists — but if so, whence? The 

 other is the view takea by Dr. Hance (whose authority on such a 

 point is very great), that the trees form the remnants of the indi- 

 genous forest preserved around the temples, from feelings of 

 veneration, but destroyed for timber or by fire in other parts of 

 the country. 



In the ^ Journal of Botany,' 1875, p. 138, as has been kindly 

 pointed out to me by Mr. F. B. Forbes, Dr. Hance alludes to 

 the " Grold Pine" {Kinff-sunr/ or King-ts-ien-sung), found by 

 the Eev. Gr. E. Moule in the hills west of Ningpo. This Dr. 

 Hance refers to Larix davurica, but, as Mr. Forbes suggests, it 

 is probable that Pseudolarix KcBmpferi is really the tree in- 

 tended. Mr. Moule says that the tree is not so spiral in figure 

 as tlie European Larch, but more like a Cedar, except that the 

 branches do not stratify, 



ft' 



Bertrand (Ann. Sc. Nat. t. xx. 5 ser. p. 90) includes this plant 

 under Larix^ of whose leaf-structure he gives a figure and de- 

 scription, lie distinguishes it from the other species of Larix 

 (except i. europced) by the absence of stomata on the upper 

 surface, while, according to him, there is hypoderm and four 

 rows of stomata on either side of the midrib in the European 

 species, as contrasted with the absence of hypoderm and the 

 presence of nine rows of stomata in the Chinese species. The 

 only leaf I have yet examined of this species presented a dif- 

 ferent structure from that indicated by Bertrand, one in many 

 points unlike that of the Larch. The leaf-section, is transversely 



