164 Capt, S. E. Cook on the Genus Pinus and Abies. 



the " Douglas group/' as we owe most of our knowledge re- 

 specting it to that lamented traveller, whose memory well de- 

 serves such a compliment. The 3rd is that of the uplands of 

 Mexico, of which we already possess a few specimens. The 

 4th is composed of the species newly discovered to clothe 

 parts of the Himalaya mountains. The 5th is that of Europe. 



We should gladly make another division of the Caucasus 

 and mountains of the north of Asia, but as yet our information 

 is too incomplete to enable this vast portion of the globe to be 

 regularly placed in the series. 



The first group, that of the United States and Canada, pre- 

 sents every variety of form and size to the number of about 

 twenty species. Of the whole of this list, although many of 

 them are of the noblest port and dimensions, none produce tim- 

 ber of more than second-rate quality, and the greater part only 

 of very inferior value. Many of these kinds are found in the 

 depth of enormous and primaeval forests, where they are shel- 

 tered from every wind, and draw their nourishment from the 

 richest alluvial soil covered by the successive vegetable depo- 

 sits of countless ages, in a climate where a severe but steady 

 winter is rapidly succeeded by an almost tropical summer. 

 We can easily imagine that under these circumstances the 

 rapid growth of timber may be fatal to the solidity of its tex- 

 ture, and consequently to its durability ; but how are we to ac- 

 count for the same quality pervading that of the species which 

 are grown on dry and sandy or rocky uplands, or on the bleak 

 coast of Labrador, in climates resembling those of Russia and 

 Norway, in which our finest timber is produced ? Such, how- 

 ever, is the undoubted fact, and it is equally singular that 

 none of these species grow well in Europe, our best specimens 

 being little more than abortive representations of the indivi- 

 duals they are descended from when seen in their native fo- 

 rests. As in the ceconomic point of view, therefore, they can 

 neither be considered as very useful nor even ornamental, we 

 shall not make any further remark upon them. 



Far other anticipations may be indulged in respecting the 

 Douglas group. Without being over sanguine, there is little 

 doubt that amongst the gigantic species forming it, of which 

 we are already acquainted with about fifteen, we shall make 



