308 ON THE SYNONYMY OF VARIOUS CONIFERS. 
LV.—ON THE SYNONYMY OF VARIOUS 
CONIFERS. 
By Anprew Murray, Assistant Secretary. 
(Continued from page 207). 
THe CALIFORNIAN SILVER Firs.—Absies (PrcEA) GRANDIS, AMABILIS, 
LASIOCARPA, and their allies. 
. 
here is a small group of Californian silver fir-trees, as to whose 
identity and specific characters a vast deal of confusion prevails. 
This has in a great measure arisen from the outward aspect of the cones 
and leaves of the allied species being so like each other, that they have 
been assumed to be identical, and the produce of the seeds mixed, so 
that, when a distinction is at last found, the young plants cannot be 
referred with certainty to the cone from which the seeds were taken. In 
other cases, we have reason to believe, that some misplacing of labels or 
confusion of plants has led to a young plant being referred to one cone 
which belonged to another. 
The first step to be taken is to ascertain what we really do know on 
the subject. When we have once settled the extent of our present know- 
ledge, we can then proceed with greater chance of success to fill up its gaps. 
This can only be done by tracing the history of each. species, and by a 
collation of the dried materials in museums and private collections, 80 
as to determine how many different species have really been introduce , 
and what their characters are. We shall then be in a better position {0 
examine the young plants now bewildering us in this country. 
1832.—AnrEs GRANDIS (Amabilis of Hort. ; 
The confusion commences very early—in fact, it may be said to begin 
at the beginning. In 1831, Douglas found two species of silver fir in 
Northern California, specimens and seeds of which he transmitted to the 
Horticultural Society of London. These he proposed to call respectively, 
Abies grandis, and Abies amabilis. 
The first author who availed himself of these materials was Lambert, who, 
in the second edition of his Genus Pinus (1882), described one species 
under the name of А. grandis, 
mens from which Lambert took his description, and are therefore confined, 
with parallel leaves than the 
The cone (see No. 2 
