THE PIB-TKEE FAMILY. 459 



INTERMEDIATE FAMILIES. (See page 46'.) 



CXLVI.— THE FIR-TREE FAMILY. ConifercB or Pindcece. 



A magnificent family of trees and shrubs, the former, when at the 

 acme of their development, presenting some of the finest objects of 

 living nature. The number of species is inconsiderable, probably not 

 over two hundred, but this is forgotten in the vastitude of the forests 

 they often compose, and in the prodigious bulk and the immense alti- 

 tude attained by individuals. Sixty to eighty feet is quite a common 

 elevation ; many Idnds grow twice as tall ; the stupendous pines of 

 North-west America rise frequently to the height of two hundred and 



Fig. 204. 

 Cone of Larch (natural size). 



fifty feet ; while the colossal Wellingtonias of California, attain, in fine 

 specimens, the almost incredible height of four hundred feet, with a 

 thickness of nearly forty feet at the height of a man from the ground ! 

 The diameter of the base of the specimen, the bark of which is in the 

 Crystal Palace at Sydenham, rebuilt into the position it occupied 

 before taken from the tree, was thirty-one feet.-'= The longevity of 

 many kinds is on a par with their dimensions. The ordinary age is 

 one or two hundred years, and there seems no reason to doubt that 

 the oldest Wellingtonias have been growing for fully five thousand 

 years. Great portions of the northern regions, both of the old world 



• See the Times of February 17th, 1850. 



