298 Capt. S. E. Cook on Pinus and Abies. 



valleys of Nayaxre and the Western Pyrenees, and it requires 

 close examination to ascertain whether the species which is 

 found in those comparatively genial valleys belong not to the 

 southern division, and if so, whether, as is possible, it be iden- 

 tical with that which occupies the great zone in the highest 

 valleys of the range at the back of the Maledetta and Mont 

 Perdu. 



From the description of the localities above mentioned, it 

 might be inferred, that the natural habitats of the silver fir are 

 rather characterized by humidity. I have no doubt it is so, 

 and in attentively considering its natural position in Europe, 

 we find that in the regions where dryness of atmosphere pre- 

 dominates, it is replaced by its congeners the Pinus of the 

 corresponding zone. This observation is of material import- 

 ance as to the oeconomic value of the tree, because it would 

 point out the species as particularly suited to most parts of 

 these islands, of which the climate seems peculiarly fitted to 

 its cultivation on an extended scale. 



That the Pinsapo should have remained so long unnoticed 

 is less singular than that of many other points connected with 

 the natural history of the same country, which have been left 

 equally unobserved. The locality which it occupies is of 

 small extent ; and it is not only unnoticed by the Moorish 

 writer of Arab agriculture who wrote in the twelfth century, 

 and was well acquainted w r ith the arboreal vegetation of An- 

 dalusia, but I believe it w r as unknown in the Arsenal at Cadiz, 

 where, from the dearth of timber, it would have been invalu- 

 able, though its total destruction would have probably been 

 the result of the discovery. The order of position of the 

 pine in that portion of Spain, by observation of the Sierra de 

 Macael and other ranges to the east and west of the same di- 

 strict, is, ascending, P. halepensis and Pinea, P. Pinaster, P. 



Pinsapo. 



On the Division of the Genus Abies. 



The division of this portion of the great family of Pinus ap- 

 pears to have been proposed in the observation that some of 

 the members of it had the cones placed vertically on the tree, 

 whilst in others they are pendent. Some other differences in 

 the structure of the cone have been noticed, a recent one, 



