128 TRANSACTIONS OF ROYAL SCOTTISH ARBORICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



our tree just at timber-line, growing singly among Douglas fir, 

 Pinus ponderosa, and Pimis tuberculata (the knob-cone pine). 

 It is a beautiful tree, utterly distinct in character, with drooping 

 branchlets often 8 feet long. The tops of the trees were covered 

 with cones a good month from being ripe. The tree was first dis- 

 covered in 1884, and named after an eminent Californian botanist. 

 Its cones, when the seed is shed, reflex their scales, and are of a 

 rich brown. The unripe cones are purple, about 2\ inches long. 

 I imagine the wood of the tree is extremely hard, growing as it 

 does at a fairly high altitude, and evidently making small annual 

 growth. The bark is grey, and in flakes not unlike that of our 

 larch. The trees of this district are very different from what we 

 had left : Pinus ponderosa and Pinus Lambertiatia — those two 

 kings among pine trees — predominated. Thuja gigantea had 

 given way to Libocedrus decurrens, and in the valleys grew the 

 Umbellularia Californica — a mighty bay which occasionally reaches 

 100 feet; the Castanopsis chrysophyilum, with its shining leaves, 

 bright yellow underneath, and chestnut-like fruit ; and the Pasania, 

 or tan-bark oak. The Fraxinus Oregona I saw here finer than 

 elsewhere ; it is an ash which I hope may succeed admirably 

 in our own country, judging by the fine young tree at Kew. It 

 is the most valuable hardwood in the west. I have distributed 

 the seed of this tree to sixteen or more localities in Great Britain. 

 I saw the Chamcecyparis Lawsoniana that day — 3rd September — 

 for the first time ; but to see this splendid tree at its best we 

 ought to have gone west a farther fifty miles to the coast. No 

 tree in Western America is more prized than this " Port Orford 

 Cedar," as the lumbermen call it. Its wood is almost imperish- 

 able, and its delicious scent makes it highly suitable for interior 

 finishing, etc. 



A stranger in the country has a little difiiculty in identifying 

 trees by their local names. For instance, I was told I ought to 

 see the "larch" on Mount Tacoma. This I found was Abies 

 nobilis. "Red cedar" in British Columbia and Washington means 

 Thuja giga?iiea; "red cedar" in South Oregon and California 

 mean?, Libocedrus decurrens. "White cedar" in Washington means 

 Cupressus nootkatensis ; " white cedar " in Oregon means Cupressus 

 Lawsoniana. But, worst of all, the name " Tamarack " is applied 

 in different neighbourhoods to Larix occidentalism Pinus tuberculata 

 and Pinus Murrayana. This confusion of nomenclature also 

 extends in America to the birds and beasts. 



