118 Wisconsin Academy of Sciences^ Arts., and Letters. 



usually furnislied. Sucli a wing in this case, unless it were 

 very large, would answer but a poor purpose in floating tliese 

 nuts from tlie tree. Tliese nuts came from New Mexico, and 

 are tlie produce of the 'pinus edulis^ or the pinon of the Mexi" 

 can. I shall ask you to receive and preserve these in your 

 cabinet. 



I think I see in this kernel and embryo another evidence of 

 the necessity of revising the botanical classification of our 

 plants, and of separating the coniferae from the dicotyledonous 

 plants, since they do not agree with the condition, two in the 

 number of cotyledons ; or from the exogenous trees, where 

 they disagree in the form of the fibre of the wood ; and arrang- 

 ing them in a class by themselves, between the exogens and 

 acrogens. 



The tree on which these nuts gi'ow is botanically named 

 from the edible nuts ; but one is at loss to know why the Mex- 

 ican has called it the pinon, large or big pine, unless we are to 

 suppose he has transfei-red the large or big nut of this pine 

 [pineo] to the tree itself. It is usually a small tree, short- 

 bodied, with numerous crooked branches, and a dense foliage. 

 The wood is very hard and full of pitch, compact and brittle, 

 and when dry is equal to the best of hickory for fuel. 



Observers must have discovered that many of the evergreens 

 in cultivation in this region, are failing for some cause not 

 apparent to everybody. I attribute much of this failure to a 

 want of sufficient moisture in the atmos|)here. The native 

 habitat of our cultivated coniferse is in regions of great moist- 

 ure, where the mosses abound. The climate here is different ; 

 and as our fruit-growers have been taught lessons in the 

 expensive school of experience, so the grower of evergreens 

 must expect to pay dearly for knowledge, when he seeks to 

 transplant the trees of damp Europe and wooded America, to 

 the dry regions of Wisconsin, and its sister states. We are 

 not yet prepared, nor need we ever be, to give up the idea of 

 growing evergreens ; but it becomes the thoughtful inquirer, 



