30 



SILVA OF NORTH AMERICA. 



CONIFERS. 



Douglas ; and although it has proved perfectly hardy in western and central Europe, and in eastern 

 America as far north as southern New England, it grows very slowly in cultivation, and gives little 

 indication of assuming its true habit or attaining a large size. 



The Sugar Pine, the noblest of its race, surpassing all other Pine-trees in girth and length of stem, 

 tosses its mighty branches, bending under the weight of its long graceful pointed cones, far above the 

 silvan roof, and with its companion, the great Sequoia, glorifies those Sierra forests that surpass in 

 majesty all forests of coniferous trees. 1 



The specific name commemorates that of Aylmer Bourke Lambert, 2 a munificent English patron of 

 botany. 



Pine-tree with a cone sixteen or eighteen inches in length and about 

 four inches in circumference on the north side of the Columbia River 

 near the ocean. Judging by the size of the cone this tree must have 

 been the Sugar Pine. No one, however, since the time of Lewis and 

 Clark has seen Pinus Lambertiana growing north of the Columbia 

 River, and their description was probably made from a cone in the 

 possession of some of the Columbia River Indians, who were no 

 doubt in the habit of obtaining the seeds of tins tree from the tribes 

 living on the Umpqua or Rogue Rivers, by whom they were gath- 

 ered for food. (See Garden and Forest, x. 39.) 



1 " In most Pine trees there is a sameness of expression which to 

 most people is apt to become monotonous ; for the typical spiry 

 form, however beautiful, affords but little scope for appreciable 

 individual character. The Sugar Pine is as free from convention- 

 alities of form and motion as any oak. No two are alike, even to 

 the most inattentive observer ; and, notwithstanding they are ever 

 tossing out their immense arms in what might seem most extrava- 

 gant gestures, there is a majesty and repose about them that pre- 

 cludes all possibility of the grotesque, or even picturesque, in their 

 general expression." (Muir, The Mountains of California, 158.) 



2 Aylmer Bourke Lambert (1761-1842), the only son of Edward 

 Lambert of Boynton House, near Haytesbury in Wiltshire, was 



born at Bath, and educated at St. Mary's Hall at Oxford. A col- 

 lector from boyhood, he formed a museum before he went to 

 school ; and after leaving college he devoted himself to the study 

 of botany, using his abundant means in forming a large herbarium 

 and botanical library, which for many years were under the care of 

 Mr. David Don, and in encouraging science. In 1797 Lambert 

 published an illustrated description of the genus Cinchona, and in 

 1803 the first volume of his sumptuous description of the genus 

 Pinus, a large folio with beautifully executed colored plates by 

 which his name is best remembered ; the second volume, prepared 

 by David Don, appeared in 1824. A second edition of this work 

 was published in 1828 ; and in 1837 the first edition of a third vol- 

 ume appeared, several of the plates representing the conifers dis- 

 covered by Douglas in western America ; this was also written by 

 Don. An octavo edition of the first two volumes was published 

 in 1832. Lambert was one of the founders in 1788 of the Lin- 

 mean Society, which he served as vice-president from 1796 until 

 his death, and contributed many papers on botany and zoology to 

 its Proceedings. 



A genus of Australian shrubs bears the name of Lambert, and it 

 has also been commemorated by Martius in Aylmeria, a genus of 

 the Portulaca family, now referred to Polycarpsea. 



