Capt. S. E. Cook on the Genus Pinus and Abies. 171 



fanciful term of Picea, and divide the class, because of the 

 difficulty of making a true demarcation ; and that the species 

 of Europe are too scanty in number to make it necessary. 

 Besides these reasons, the term is not truly applied, some 

 other pines producing turpentine in greater quantities than 

 that on which this name has been conferred. 



The Abies do not supply us with the same extended series 

 of observations which w T e have traced in the Pinus. They are 

 also inferior in the absolute quality of their timber to the best 

 of the preceding genus, and we suspect, but want data to 

 affirm its being generally the case, that is so through the 

 groups, and that the Abies fall below the Pinus in ceconomic 

 value. It is certainly so in the Europaean series. 



The first in hardiness is the Abies excelsa, or common 

 spruce, which ranges from Lapland to Savoy, south of which 

 it is not to my knowledge found in the natural state. It cer- 

 tainly does not, nor ever did inhabit the Pyrenees, as asserted 

 by some writers. It would appear to live further north than 

 the sylvestris, its only neighbour in the north of Scandinavia ; 

 but it is possible, that dampness of soil, which it resists better 

 than any of the tribe, may be the cause of this apparent greater 

 degree of hardiness. Although its timber, which is dry and 

 light, may not equal that of some Of the kindred species in 

 utility for some purposes, it is a most valuable tree and well 

 worthy more attention than it has received in an ceconomic 

 point of view. 



The Abies pectinata, or silver fir, is unquestionably less 

 hardy than the last-mentioned species. It ranges less to the 

 north and further to the south than either the sylvestris or 

 excelsa. Extensive forests of it exist in the Pyrenees, where 

 it is placed in a regular zone below r the P. uncinata and syl- 

 vestris, and next above the beech. It descends into the com- 

 paratively genial climate of Navarre and the Basque Provinces, 

 and as a variety even into Greece. 



The common silver fir is not to my knowledge found be- 

 yond the Baltic, and it is probable that those reported to exist 

 far north in the East of Europe are the pichta or Altaian 

 species. 



A variety has been recently found in Cephalonia, on which 



