114 PROCEEDINGS OF THE ACADEMY OF [1883. 



PINUS KORAIENSIS Sieb. & Zucc. 

 BY JOSIAH HOOPES. 



Through the kindness of Chief Eng. G. W. Melville, U. S. N., 

 I have enjoyed an opportunity of studying some excellent speci- 

 mens of this interesting species of pine, collected by him during 

 the late voyage of the unfortunate " Jeannette " to the Arctic 

 regions. These specimens consist of a branch clothed with foliage, 

 two immature cones, and a few mature seeds, and were collected 

 in the District of Tuknansk, in Eastern Siberia. It was seen 

 along the banks of the Lena, Yenisei and Obi Rivers, forming a 

 tree about thirty feet in height, with a trunk about ten inches in 

 diameter at base. The collector further states that it fruits 

 abundantly, and " the edible seeds are used b}^ the natives as 

 food, and by travelers as nuts." It is interesting to note that 

 this heretofore comparatively rare species has a wider habitat, 

 and is more numerous than has generally been supposed, although 

 reported as having been found up to the Amoor River, which 

 takes its rise in the mountain range dividing the Lena from the 

 Amoor ; hence it was reasonable to suppose it was more generally 

 distributed throughout Siberia and adjacent islands. Siebold 

 found it in Kamtschatka ; and various authors have described it 

 in the list of Japanese Coniferae, but only in the latter as an 

 introduced species, where it is said to be quite rare. 



Pinus Koraiensis is placed by Dr. Engelmann, in his recent 

 revision of the genus Pinus^ in the subsection Cembrse, of his 

 first section, Strobus. It is distinguishable from the section 

 Eustrobi by reason of the parench3'matous ducts, and with leaves 

 sparingly serrulate, scarcely denticulate at tip. This nut-bearing 

 pine is well marked throughout, and especially so in its cones and 

 seeds, the latter being wingless, subangulate, flatly compressed, 

 leaving on both sides of the scale when removed, remarkably deep 

 impressions. The cones are very distinctive, with long reflexed 

 scales, terminating in an abrupt mucro-like apex. The leaf- 

 characters in the specimens before me coincide with the published 

 description given by Dr. Engelmann^ in relation to the absence 

 (or nearly so) of hj'poderm or strengthening-cells, as well as in 

 other peculiar features of the Cembran group. 



