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ABIES LASIOCARPA Hook. AND ITS ALLIES.* 

 By Maxwell T. Masters, M.D., F.E.S. 



So much confusion has arisen concerning this tree that it 

 may not be without interest to put on record the results of some 

 recent investigations which induce me to concur with those who 

 have considered it to be a distinct species. Engelmann referred 

 it, but with hesitation, to his subsequently described ^4. suhalpma^ 

 whilst Parlatore ranged it under A. amabilis. In the notes which 

 follow I shall confine myself, so far as the literature of the 

 subject is concerned, chiefly to the accounts given by those who 

 first described the plants, and pass over the comments of those 

 who had not the means of increasing our knowledge by personal 

 investigations. 



The three names that have to be specially considered are : — 

 1. Piniis (Abies) lasiocarpa Hook. ; 2. Abies or Picea bifolia of 

 Murray, who, in speaking of this species, placed it sometimes 

 under the one, at other times under the other generic name ; 

 and 3. Abies subalpina of Engelmann, with its variety /aZ^aa;. 



Abies lasiocarpa. 



The earliest mention of the tree first on the list dates from 

 1840, when it was described by Sir William Hooker, f under the 

 name of '* Pinus (Abies) lasiocarpa^ Sir William, it may inci- 

 dentally be mentioned, considered Abies to be a mere subgenus or 

 section of Pinus, an opinion in which he followed the example of 

 Linnasus, Lambert and others, and which has subsequently been 

 adopted by Parlatore and other authors. 



The maintenance of Pinus, however, as a distinct genus from 

 either Abies or Picea, seems imperative on the ground of conve- 

 nience, and hardly less so for scientific reasons. In Bentham and 

 Hooker's ' Genera Plantarum ' the three groups just named are 

 treated as separate genera. The matter would not be of any great 

 consequence were it not that it involves questions of priority and 

 correct synonymy. Hooker's original description is invested by 

 circumstances with so much historic importance, that it is advisable 

 to quote it at full length : — 



**Foliis linearibus obtusis (uncialibus et fere sesquiuncialibus) 

 unicoloribus, supra Imea media exarata, subtus linea media elevata, 

 marginibus paululum incrassatis ; stro bills ....?; squamis 

 latis subrotundatis extus dense fusco-pubesceutibus ; bracteolis late 

 obovatis vix denticulatis squama subduplo brevioribus apice 

 mucronato-acummatis. Hab. Interior of N. W. America ; last 

 journey; Douglas. 



'* There are no entire cones accompanying the solitary specimen 

 of this plant ; but the scales and bracteoles, lying with the leaves, 



* For the figures illustrating this paper we are indebted to the courtesy of 

 the proprietors of the ' Gardeners' Chronicle.' 

 t Fl. Bor. Amer., ii. 163. 

 Journal of Botany.— Vol. 27. [May, 1889.] k 



