124 HISTORY AND GEOGRAPHY OF TREES. PART I. 
Society, ‘is, perhaps, the largest of the whole. One of these, 
which had been blown. down, measured 215 ft. in length, and 
57 ft. 9 in. in circumference, at 3 ft. from the ground. The 
cones of it, which Mr. Douglas sent home, were 16 in. long, and 
11 in. in circumference. The kernel of the seed is sweet and 
pleasant to the taste, and is eaten by the Indians, either roasted, 
or pounded into coarse cakes for winter store. The resin, which 
exudes from the trees when they are partly burned, loses its 
usual flavour, and acquires a sweet taste; in which state it is 
used’ by the natives as sugar. Another species, named by Mr. 
Sabine Abies Douglasz#, attains nearly the size of the above. 
In the spring of 1827 Mr. Douglas traversed the country 
from Fort Vancouver, across the Rocky Mountains, to Hudson’s 
Bay, where he met Captain (now Sir) John Franklin, Dr. 
Richardson, and Captain Back, returning from their second 
overland arctic expedition. With these gentlemen he came to 
England in the autumn, bringing with him a variety of seeds, as 
well as specimens of plants and other objects of natural history. 
Through the kindness of his friend and patron Mr. Sabine, he 
was introduced to the notice of many of the leading literary and 
scientific characters in London; and shortly afterwards he was 
honoured by being elected, free of expense, a Fellow of the 
Linnzan, Geological, and Zoological Societies; to each of 
which he contributed several papers, since published in their 
Transactions, evincing much research and acuteness as a natu- 
ralist. Some entertaining extracts from his letters to Dr. Hooker 
were published in Brewster’s Edinburgh Journal for January, 
1827; and a genus of plants belonging to the natural order 
Primulaceze was dedicated to him by Professor Lindley, and 
defined in Brande’s Journal for January, 1828. 
After being in London for two years, Mr. Douglas again 
sailed for Columbia in the autumn of 1829; where he re- 
mained some time, enjoying his favourite pursuit, and adding 
largely to his former discoveries. His return was expected by 
the very ship which brought the tidings of his horrible death ; 
an event which was occasioned by his falling into a pit made 
by the natives of the Sandwich Islands for catching wild bulls, 
one of the latter being in at the time. 
The plants introduced by Mr. Douglas are supposed to be 
more numerous than those introdnced by any other individual 
whatever ; and what greatly adds to their value is, that, being 
from a temperate region, they will all endure the open air in this 
country. The number of herbaceous species which he intro- 
duced amounts to nearly 100, and of trees and shrubs to 50, 
The names of the latter compose the following list, which has 
been kindly communicated to us by Mr. Munro, the head gar- 
dener of the London Horticultural Society. 
