A.H. Smith Barry, Esq., to whom I am indebted for sending 
it to Kew for identification. Dr. M‘Nab places A. religiosa 
next to A. bracteata, considering it very closely related, an 
opinion I cannot subscribe tg; for in habit, form and 
nature of the buds foliage and bracts, they seem to me to 
be very different indeed. In all these respects A. religiosa 
approaches nearer to A. nobilis, in the cones especially. 
Gordon describes as a var. A. glaucescens, Roezel, with 
leaves silvery on both surfaces, so as to make the trees — 
appear as if snowed upon. The name religiosa is in allusion 
to the branches being used in the decoration of churches 
in Mexico. 
Descr. A tree attaining 150 feet high, with a trunk five 
to six feet in diameter, a sparse habit, and long spreading 
branches with drooping hairy branchlets. Leaves one to 
one and a half inch long by one-twelfth to one-tenth of an 
inch broad, inserted loosely all round the branches, but 
chiefly pointing bifariously, widely spreading, curved, acute 
or obtuse, exactly linear, base with a half-twist; upper 
surface deep green, obscurely channelled, lower with a pale _ 7 
glaucous band of stomata on each side of the midrib. Cone 
erect, four to six inches long, sessile, cylindric-oblong, tip 
rounded, two to two and a half inches in diameter, dark 
violet blue. Bracts with triangular exserted recurved tips. 
Scales very numerous, broadly obovate-spathulate, sessile ; 
broad end thin, rounded, obscurely puberulous. Seeds, 
including the wing, obliquely obovate, nearly as long as the. 
scale, nucleus narrow.—J. D. H. 
+ 
Fig. 1, and 2, Leaves; 3, transverse section of leaf ; 4, dorsal view of scale and 
bract; 5, scale and seeds :— ad/ enlarged. 
