326 PINUS DENSIFLORA. 



mountains. Along the northern portion of its range it occurs only 



in small groves in the midst of other coniferous vegetation ; on the 



southern mountains it is more abundant and attains its largest size. 



This remarkable Pine was discovered by Dr. Thomas Coulter in 



1832 on the west side of the Santa Lucia at 3,000 4,000 feet 



elevation ; but there is evidence of its having been previously seen in 



the same locality by David Douglas who sent seeds and herbarium 



specimens of it to the Horticultural Society of London under the name 



of Pinus Sabiniana, and from these seeds were raised the oldest specimens 



growing in Great Britain. Seeds were subsequently collected in the 



same locality by Hartweg, 18461847, and by William Lobb, 1851 



1852. 



In Great Britain the largest specimens of Pinus Coulteri present a 

 broad outline with a rounded top ; the branches grow faster in 

 proportion to the trunk than in most other Pines, and the foliage 

 being clustered at the extremities of the branchlets the tree, has 

 always a bare and unfurnished appearance,. The large cones, although 

 a striking feature of the species, are produced too sparingly in this country 

 to modify the general effect. The wood is said to be useless for 

 constructive purposes. 



THOMAS COULTER (1793 1843) was born near Dundalk in Ireland, and at an 

 early age evinced a liking for Natural History. He completed his education at 

 Trinity College, Dublin, where he showed a marked proficiency in Botany and 

 Entomology. After leaving the University he went to Geneva where he continued 

 his botanical studies under the elder De Candolle. In 1823 he undertook the 

 elaboration of the Dipsaceae which formed the basis of the monograph of the Order 

 subsequently published in the "Prodromus." In the following year he returned to 

 Ireland, and soon after accepted the position of medical officer to the Real del Monte 

 Mining Company for three years. He arrived in Mexico towards the end of 1824, 

 but scarcely anything is recorded of his proceedings until he arrived at Monterey 

 in 1831 where he met David Douglas, and the two worked together till the Spring 

 of the following year, when Douglas left for the Sandwich Islands and Coulter 

 proceeded on a botanical excursion to Arizona, returning again to south California and 

 continuing his collections till 1834, when he returned to England bringing with him over 

 fifty thousand specimens representing between fifteen hundred and two thousand species, 

 besides a collection of woods, botanical manuscripts, journals, etc. He soon after 

 accepted the Curatorship of the Herbarium of Trinity College whither his collections 

 were transferred, but all his manuscripts were, in some unaccountable way, lost in 

 transmission between London and Dublin. Suffering from the loss and broken in health 

 from the hardships he had undergone during his travels, he devoted himself for the 

 remainder of his life to the arrangement of his collections which, after his death, 

 became the property of Trinity College. Coulter was one of the most laborious 

 botanical collectors of his time, but no living plants were introduced by him into 

 Great Britain.* 



Pinus densiflora. 



A medium-sized tree of which the average height may be estimated 

 at 50 70 feet, but in the warm valleys of central Japan attaining a 

 height of 100 feet, the upper part of the trunk and the primary 

 branches covered with light reddish bark separating into thin scales. 

 In Great Britain the bark of the oldest trees is rugged and fissured 

 into small plates. Primary branches spreading, often curved laterally, 

 ramified at the distal end only. Branchlets in whorls of three four, 

 but often two and opposite, relatively slender, with brownish bark 



* Chiefly from the Botanical Gazette, XX. 519 (1895). 



