136 TRANSACTIONS OF ROYAL SCOTTISH ARBORICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



only 27 feet in circumference at 5 feet from the ground ; this is 

 the photograph reproduced in Elwes and Henry's great work. 



It would have been much easier to follow Douglas' movements 

 had a map been embodied in the volume with his journeys clearly 

 traced in red ink; although the writer is familiar with most of 

 the country traversed by him, a constant reference to maps 

 greatly added to his understanding of the journal. It seems 

 clear that on the long journey from Fort Vancouver to Hudson 

 Bay his route lay through the Arrow Lakes, up the Columbia 

 past Revelstoke, and north through the Yellow Head Pass — the 

 route lately taken across the mountains by the Grand Trunk and 

 Canadian Northern railways. Having crossed the Rockies by 

 that pass he reached Edmonton after descending the Athabasca 

 River. The Continental Divide was passed on 2nd May 1827 

 when snow was still deep in the mountains; had his journey 

 been two months later what rich additions in alpines he might 

 have added to the rock gardens of our grandfathers ! 



Although in the preface the editor says " the botanical names 

 have been carefully looked up, and the modern name given to 

 the plant inserted in a note at the foot of the page," one can 

 only regret that these explanatory footnotes are so often wrong 

 and so often omitted altogether. The modern names of species 

 from the eastern side of the Continent are given in the footnotes 

 with tiresome reiteration to Pacific Coast trees seen by Douglas; 

 also when he mistakes the identification of a species in numerous 

 cases no correcting note is given — instances are his record of 

 Piniis strobus on the Arrow Lakes and Pinus Banksiana in the 

 Rockies, the trees he saw being undoubtedly Pinus monticola and 

 Pmus contorta respectively. Abies balsamea, Picea nigra, Picea 

 rubra, Picea alba, Tsuga Canadensis, and Quercus velutina do not 

 occur west of the Rockies, in fact the notes indicate an injudicious 

 use of the Index Kewensis. 



Where Douglas gives a description of a plant which makes it 

 clearly recognisable, a footnote indicating the modern name 

 would have been welcome; for instance, his tall alder on the 

 Columbia (on page 106) is c\ta.r\y A inus Oregona, his Cornus (on 

 page 109) "30 to 40 feet high with profusion of large white 

 flowers" is Cornus Nuttallii, and the admirable description 

 (page 222) of Umbellularia Californica\t2i\&sr\o doubt whatever 

 of the identity of the tree described, yet there are no notes to 

 tell us so. 



