CONIFERS. 



SILVA OF NORTH AMERICA. 



41 



Pinus albicaulis was discovered on the 23d of September, 1851, on the mountains rising from 

 the valley of the lower Fraser River, 1 by John Jeffrey, 2 who sent the seeds to Scotland, where a few 

 plants were raised. It grows very slowly in cultivation and has little to recommend it as an ornament 

 of the park or garden. On bleak mountain slopes, however, struggling bravely on the advance line 

 of the forest against the hardships which cannot subdue it, Pinus albicaulis is one of the most 

 picturesque and interesting coniferous trees of North America. 



1 " Pinus sp. no. 398. Found on the summit of a mountain near 

 Fort Hope, Fraser's River. I could only find a few specimens of 

 this tree on which there were few cones. The few that were, Cor- 

 vus Columbianus had deprived them of nearly all their seeds. 

 Leaves in fives, short and rigid ; cones small, nearly round ; bark 

 smooth ; tree 30 ft. by 1 foot diameter ; growing on granite de- 

 cayed. Lat. 50° ; elevation 7,000 feet. Sept. 23d, 1851." (From 

 an unpublished and undated letter of Jeffrey to Professor J. H. 

 Balfour preserved in the herbarium of the Royal Gardens at Edin- 

 burgh.) 



2 The birthplace of John Jeffrey and the dates of his birth and 

 death are unknown. On the 22d of November, 1849, a, meeting of 

 gentlemen interested in the promotion of arboriculture and hor- 

 ticulture in Scotland was held at the Botanic Garden in Edin- 

 burgh. At this meeting it was decided to send to western North 

 America a botanist to collect the seeds of trees, shrubs, and other 

 plants suitable for the decoration of gardens, in the regions trav- 

 ersed by David Douglas, and " to complete his researches and to 

 extend them into those parts of the country not fully explored by 

 him." A fund was raised to pay the expenses of this expedition, 

 the subscribers organizing under the chairmanship of Professor 

 J. II. Balfour, and designating themselves the Oregon Botanical 

 Association. John Jeffrey, a young gardener, was selected by the 

 association to carry out its work ; and early in June, 1860, he 

 sailed for Hudson Bay. On April 7, 1851, Jeffrey wrote to Pro- 

 fessor Balfour, from Jaspar House on the head-waters of the 

 Athabasca River in the Rocky Mountains, that he had left York 

 Factory on the 20th of August of the previous year, and, travel- 

 ing on foot, had reached Cumberland House, on the Saskatche- 

 wan, on the 6th of October and had remained there until January, 

 1851, when he proceeded up the Saskatchewan, reaching Jaspar 

 House on the 21st of March. From Jaspar House Jeffrey crossed 



the Rocky Mountains by the Athabasca Pass, reached the Colum- 

 bia River, and descended it to Fort Colville, a few miles above 

 the mouth of Colville River, where he arrived about the 30th of 

 May, 1851. Thence he traveled to the northwest to the Fraser 

 River, which he descended to Vancouver Island, continuing to 

 collect during the remainder of the season in southern British Co- 

 lumbia and about Mt. Baker in northern Washington, and prob- 

 ably exploring higher altitudes than any of his predecessors, as he 

 discovered at this time such alpine trees as Pinus albicaulis and 

 Patton's Spruce. The following year he went southward to Wash- 

 ington and Oregon as far as Mt. Shasta, and on Scott Mountain 

 in northern California discovered Pinus Balfouriana and Pinus Jef- 

 freyi. In 1853 Jeffrey continued to collect in southern Oregon and 

 northern California, and in the autumn of that year reached San 

 Francisco. The plants collected by him in 1853 were the last that 

 Jeffrey sent to Edinburgh, and his connection with the association 

 ceased at this time. Afterward he appears to have gone to San 

 Diego, California, with the intention of crossing the Colorado Desert 

 to Fort Yuma ; and in attempting to penetrate the desert alone he 

 probably perished of thirst, as nothing more was heard of him. 

 (See Coville, Proc. Biol. Soc. Washington, xi. 57 [The Itinerary of 

 John Jeffrey, an early Botanical Explorer of western North America].') 

 In one of the printed lists of plants collected by Jeffrey sent 

 out by Mr. Andrew Murray, the secretary of the Oregon Botani- 

 cal Association, to the subscribers, and, although without date, ap- 

 parently issued in 1853, are first described Abies concolor, here called 

 Picea lasiocarpa (not Pinus lasiocarpa, Hooker), Pinus Balfouriana, 

 Pinus Jeffreyi, Pinus Murray ana, and Pinus albicaulis, here referred 

 to Pinus fezilis. This now rare paper contains figures of Pinus 

 Jeffreyi, Pinus albicaulis, Pinus attenuata, here called Pinus tubercu- 

 lata, Pinus Balfouriana, Pinus Murrayana, Abies concolor, Tsuga 

 Pattonii, and Libocedrus decurrens, here called Thuja Craigana. 



