ON THE SYNONYMY OF VARIOUS CONIFERS. 145 
Sitcha,” published in the “Mémoires de l'Academie Impériale des 
Sciences de St. Petersburg,” 6th series, ii. р. 119. 
_ In a preliminary account of that country and climate he notices condi- 
tions which may be of value as corroborative evidence or otherwise in 
our attempt to identify the species. He says :— 
* Among the mountains which approach the Russian establishment 
that which is called by the name of Werstowoi is the most remarkable, 
on account of its height, which is about 8000 feet (French measure). 
It is covered up to the very summit by thick forests, where the pines 
and firs, which there reign alone, reach sometimes the prodigious alti- 
tude of 160 feet, with a diameter of seven to ten feet. A single trunk 
of these trees suffices to enable the natives to hollow out a canoe which 
can contain as many as thirty men, with their implements. 
“ The climate of Siteha is incomparably milder than that of the 
places in Europe situated under the same degree of latitude (the 57° of 
north latitude). During the winter the frost attains few degrees, and 
never lasts long, but the atmosphere is there constantly charged 
with vapours, which, in condensing, occasion almost continual rains. 
During the whole of the month of July there were scarcely three or four 
days when the sun appeared above the horizon, and that only for a few 
minutes. ‘The constant humidity which there reigns has a prodigious 
influence upon vegetation, and all the plants grow there with astonishing 
vigour and rapidity. Wheat, however, does not grow there, and the soil 
is scarcely adapted for agriculture, for there are no plains, but every- 
where mountains and deep and humid gorges, covered with thick 
forests.” 
And here is his description of the tree:— — | 
“ Abies foliis linearibus obtusiusculis basi in petiolum attenuatis 
integerrimis, strobili squamis reniformibus integris. 
* Very much branched, the branches and branchlets very much tuber- 
culated after the leaves have fallen (delapsis foliis valde tuberculosi). 
Leaves solitary, approximated, linear, attenuated at the base me. а 
minute petiole, somewhat obtuse, above flat, below with a somewhat pro- 
minent midrib, very entire, five lines long, and somewhat narrower than 
aline. Cones solitary, sessile, oblong, obtuse, about an inch and a half 
long. Scales reniform, rather more than. five lines broad. 
No plants of Bongard's species have (so far as we know) been ever 
reared in Europe, and no other information been published regarding it. 
In 1851, hówever, seeds were received from Jeffrey, while on his 
Oregon expedition, which have produced a most beautiful and elegant 
Hemlock Spruce. Subsequent importations of seeds of the same tree 
have taken place from Oregon and British Columbia, and from these, 
young trees are now being gradually distributed over Britain. E 
Jeffrey sent home his seeds and specimens under the name o A 
taxifolia. This was at once seen to be a misnomer, but in the m. 9 
other denomination or description it was usually spoken of as “ Јећтеу 5 
ia," with a sort of reservation that this was a wrong name. 
