2326 



ARBORETUM AND FKUTICE'J'UM. 



PART 111. 



2233 



lighter green than the rest of the leaves. 



The leaves, on branches at some distance 



from the ground, and on the leading 



shoot, as compared with those of other 



pines and firs, may be described as dagger- 

 shaped, or as resembling miniature bay- 

 onets. They are equally and closely 



distributed over the branches ;' and, being 



almost without footstalks, and broad at 



the base in proportion to their length, 



they give the branches which are clothed 



with them a good deal of the appearance 



of Araucdria brasiliensis. The leaves, on 



the branches which are close to the 



ground, are rather more two-rowed, in 



the manner of the silver fir, than those on 



the higher branches; as may be seen in 

 fig. 2236., which represents a portion of 



the lowest branch of the young tree in 



the pinetum at Dropmore. The colour 



of the bark of the young shoots is a 



decided brown ; which, contrasting with 



the light colour of the petioles, and the 



dark green of the upper surface of the 



leaves, and their silvery lines below, gives the plant at once a rich and a lively 

 appearance. The buds are prominent, somewhat square-sided, pointed, and 

 slightly covered with resin. In plants kept under glass, they have much 

 more resin than in those kept in the open air. The branches are very nume- 

 rous ; and, though originating at the main stem 

 in regular tiers, yet, at a short distance from 

 it, they divaricate in all directions; and, in 

 plants in pots, from 3 ft. to 4 ft. high, which 

 are the largest that we have seen, they form a 

 bush broader than it is high. This is also said 

 to be the case with the plants in the open ground 

 at Luscombe and at Hampton Lodge. The 

 general resemblance which the plant, in this 

 state, has to an araucaria is very remarkable ; 

 and, if the cones should prove to be as dif- 

 ferent from those of other species of ^^bies and 

 PIcea as the leaves, this tree will form a con- 

 necting link between the firs and the arau- 

 carias. The cones have not yet been seen in Britain ; but General Napier 

 thinks that they are sometimes pointing upwards, and sometimes turned 

 down ; and Mr. Curling, who was superintendent of the Colonial Farm in 

 Cephalonia at the time that General Napier was governor of the island, and 

 who is now steward to Sir Henry Bunbury, at Mildenhall, Suffolk, thinks 

 that he recollects that the cones were soft and pendulous, like those of the 

 spruce fir. This point, through the kindness of General Napier, now (Janu- 

 ary, 1838,) residing at IBath, who has promised to procure cones for us, and a 

 specimen of the wood, we hope soon to be able to determine. 



Geography. The only known habitat of tiiis remarkable fir is in Cepha- 

 lonia, on a ridge of mountains, the highest point of which was anciently called 

 Mount EnoH ; l)ut the general name of the ridge is now the Black Mountain. 

 This ridge is between twelve and fifteen miles in length, and between 4000 ft. 

 and .0000 ft. above the level of tlie sea. Dr. Holland, who saw it in 1813, 

 describes it as the most striking feature in the general aspect of the island. 

 On the sunnnit of the highest point of this ridge, the Mount Enos of antiquity, 

 stood, according to Strabo, an altar dedicated to Jupiter ^nesius ; and Dr. 



