60 BOTANY. 



shortly ovoid, truncated, or broadly emarginate ; edges thin, membranaceous ; bracts imperfectly 

 elliptical, fimbriated, terminating in a long awn, which projects beyond the margin of the scale ; 

 male flowers ? 



I have had some little doubt in referring the larch which we found in Oregon Territory to L. 

 occidenlalis of Nuttall, as we saw none which fully corresponded to his description. He repre- 

 sents the tree as having, among other characters, the shortest and broadest leaves of all the 

 species of the genus. On the contrary, the larches, from one of which the specimen figured 

 was taken, were remarkable for their very long, slender, and delicate leaves, in that respect 

 excelling the "tamarack" of the eastern States, as well as the larch of Europe. The cones 

 were, however, so nearly like those described by Nuttall that there is little probability that the 

 trees observed by him and those seen by our party are of different species. 



We first met with the larch on the Des Chutes river near its head, lat. 43° 40' N. ; from that 

 point it extends northward to, and beyond the Columbia. The impression made upon me by 

 this tree when we first saw it will be seen in the following extract from my note book : 



" Dcs Chutes Basin, September 3. — Our camp is pitched under a tree which we have not before 

 met with — the western larch. This is very unlike the tamarack of the eastern States, both in 

 its ports, its foliage, and in its cones. I have not yet seen it occupying the cranberry marshes, 

 as the tamarack is so prone to do, but it grows scattered along the borders of the streams, 

 rising to a height of a hundred and fifty feet, with a diameter at base of two or three. The 

 branches are very short, and the tree, as it grows in this vicinity, is more strict than any I have 

 seen. The leaves are long and slender, the foliage very light and feathery, and the color 

 pale bluish-green. The cones are larger than in L. americana, and the scales are furnished 

 with long and slender projecting bracts." 



Taxus brevtfolia. The western yew. 



T. brevifolia. Nutt. Sylva. 3, jp. 86, t. 108. 



T. baccata, Hook, Flor. Bor. Amer. 2, p. 167, (in part.) 



T. lindleyana, Murray, Edin. Neiv Philo. Jour. 1855, p. 294. 



The differences in general aspect, exhibited by the yew of the northern States of the Atlantic 

 coast and Mississippi valley, and that of the western coast, are so striking, that, at first sight, 

 there seems no difficulty in distinguishing them, but, upon more thorough investigation, it is 

 found to be a matter of no little difficulty to fix upon characters which can be regarded as 

 diagnostic, and will serve to separate them. 



Taxus Canadensis, as it grows about the great lakes, is a low, trailing shrub, on the shores of 

 Lake Superior forming a thick and tangled undergrowth, covering the surface in the pine and 

 hemlock forests, and seldom rising more than three or four feet from the ground ; the leaves 1 

 to ~\.\ inch long, dark, sombre-green in color, mucronate, and with somewhat revolute margins. 



The yew of Oregon and California, where we saw it in the valley of the Willamette, forms 

 an upright tree 50 — 75 feet in height ; the foliage thin and rather light yellow green ; the 

 leaves J — 1 inch long, acuminate, and mucronate ; margins revolute ; flowers and fruit as in 

 T. Canadensis. 



From this comparison it will be seen that the principal differences between the eastern and 

 western yews are fouud on the upright arboreal habit, the lighter foliage, and in the shorter 

 leaves of the western plant. 



If these characters were constant they would serve as the basis of a specific distinction ; but 

 the range ot variation is so great in the European yew, T. baccata, and in T. Canadensis, that 



