474 A HANDBOOK OF CONIFERiE 



standing alone was 130 ft. high and 8 ft. in girth, with sym- 

 metrical branches almost touching the ground. These trees were 

 without cones, which are apparently borne in alternate j^ears only. 

 The Chinese call the tree " chin-lo-sung " (golden deciduous pine), 

 or " ching-sung " (golden pine), on account of the rich golden 

 colour which the leaves assume before they fall. 



Although Fortune sent home numerous consignments of 

 seeds in 1853 and subsequent years, very few seem to have 

 germinated, and for some time the only plants Uving in England 

 were those dug up by Fortune as seedlings and sent to England 

 in a wardian case. The rarity of this beautiful conifer, which 

 Fortune regarded as one of his most important introductions, is 

 somewhat remarkable considering its hardiness, but it is of slow 

 growth and needs to be planted in deep, well-drained, loamy soil. 

 The trees at Kew occasionally produce cones, but the seeds are 

 rarely, if ever, fertile. Even in China it appears to be too scarce 

 to have any economic value, although the wood is of good quality 

 and easy to work. 



Seeds are difficult to obtain from China in a fresh state, but 

 fertile seeds are frequently produced in Italy, and a fine tree, 

 probably the largest in Europe, growing in Messrs. Rovelli's 

 Nursery at Pallanza, Italy, produces plenty of seedlings beneath 

 its branches. Good specimens are found in southern England, 

 at Carclew and Penjerrick in Cornwall, at Tortworth Court in 

 Gloucestershire, and at Kew. Dr. Lindley appears to have at 

 first mistaken the tree for the Japanese larch {Larix leptolejns), 

 which had also been called L. Kaempferi. 



Elwes and Henry, Trees of Great Britain and Ireland, vi, 1477-1480. 



PSEUDOTSUGA, Carriere. 



Douglas Firs.^ 



A genus of evergreen trees of pjrramidal habit, the main 

 branches in whorls. Bark of young trees smooth, but covered 

 with resin blisters, thick, corky and furrowed on older trunks, of 

 alternating thick reddish brown and thin, whitish layers. Young 

 shoots with raised, coloured, slightly prominent bases, more or 

 less hairy. Winter buds spindle-shaped, sharp -pointed, resemb- 

 ling those of a beech, with shining brown scales. Leaves linear, 

 narrowed at the base, furrowed on the upper surface with two 

 bands of stomata separated by the midrib beneath ; resin canals 

 two, marginal. Male flowers arising from the axils of the leaves, 

 stalked, consisting of numerous, spirally arranged, shortly 

 stalked, roundish anthers. Female floivers conical, terminal, or 

 in the axils of the upper leaves, composed of numerous overlap- 



^ Henry and Flood," The Douglas Firs," Proc. Roy. Irish Acad, xxxv, B, 5, 

 67 (1920). 



