A. RELIGIOSA, SACHALINENSIS, SIBIRICA 89 



from Loudon, has — ever " looking to the south " — 

 ignominiously failed among us. It is possible that a 

 few rather sketchy, dilapidated remnants may reward 

 the curio-hunter if he makes diligent search in Corn- 

 wall or South Ireland, or some such '' Ultima Thule," 

 — or call it, if you care, El Dorado, — and that seems 

 to be all the guide-books of tree whereabouts have to 

 offer the tree-hunters. 



It is of Mexican origin, and derives its religious 

 name from the use it is put to in decorating churches 

 on festal days. It is like the Abies Nordmanniana 

 in leaf arrangement, but with fewer median leaves. 

 The first year's shoots are corrugated, the second 

 year's shoots less so, but the most telling evidence 

 of its identity is that the tips of its leaves are not 

 notched, as are all the others of this group. 



The A. Sachalinensis comes from the Kurile 

 Islands, Saghalien, and Hokkaido, the North Island 

 of Japan, where it is the sole representative of its 

 species, and known colloquially as Todo-matsu. We 

 can say of it and of the A. Sibirica that their presences 

 with us are few and far between sights, and are said 

 to be likely to be fewer and farther between still. 

 Its wood is very valuable. 



A. Sibirica. — In spite of well-founded discourage- 

 ments on every side to make attempts to grow this 

 tree on English soil, human perversity often prevails, 

 and sets us at times pursuing with small chance of 

 achieving success. What we ought not to do is just 

 what every one desires to do, and often does. If 

 you are the recipient of a gift of one, as was the writer, 

 what course is open to you ? Surely only one, and 

 that is to commit it to the ground and piously '* wish 

 it good luck in the name of the Lord." The one 

 given to me and so treated, after some seven or eight 

 years of heroic effort, and under the two distressful 



