454 I'K'KA SM1THIAXA. 



furnished tree with the colour of its foliage much heightened ; * the 

 leader shoot increases in height from 18 27 inches annually, and the 

 trees for the most part cone freely after the first twenty-five years, results 

 suggestive of the suitableness of this tree for afforesting waste lands in 

 Scotland and Ireland that could not be more profitably used for other 

 crops. 



Picea sitchensis first became known to science through Archibald 

 Menzies who discovered it on the shores of Puget Sound in 1793. It 

 was introduced into Great Britain in 1831 by the Horticultural Society 

 of London through David Douglas who named it in compliment to the 

 discoverer, and it was published by Lindley under the name of Ahw* 

 Menziesii in 1833 ; it had, however, been found by Mertens on the 

 island of Sitka a few years previously and described by Bongard as 

 Pinus sitchensis in his "Vegetation de Sitcha," published in 1832 ; Bongard's 

 name therefore has priority and is now generally accepted ; the tree is 

 best known in British plantations as Abies Menziesii. 



ARCHIBALD MEN'ZIES (17541842) was born at Weims, in Perthshire. He was early 

 placed in the Botanic Garden at Edinburgh, and, through the assistance of Dr. John 

 Hope, Professor of Botany, he was enabled to prosecute his studies so as to take the 

 diploma of surgeon. In 1778, he made a tour through the Northern Islands for the 

 purpose of collecting plants for the Botanic Garden. He then went to Carnarvon to 

 assist a medical man, and he finally became assistant-surgeon in the Navy. He 

 visited Halifax Staten Island, the Sandwich Islands, China and north-western 

 America. In 1790, he accompanied Vancouver on his celebrated voyage; he visited 

 King George's Island, the south coast of New Holland, and part of New Zealand, 

 Otaheite, Chile and the north-west of America. He returned to England in 1795. 

 Among the results of this voyage was the introduction of Araucaria imbricnta front 

 southern Chile and the first certain intelligence of the existence of the gigantic 

 coniferous vegetation of north-west America, including the discovery of Sequoia 

 semper virens, Abi'tia Douglasii, Picei sitchensis and Tliuia gigantea. He made large 

 collections of plants, as well as of other objects of Natural History during these 

 voyages. Many of them were new, and have been described by Sir J. E. Smith, 

 Robert Brown, Sir W. Hooker and others. He afterwards served in the West Indies. 

 About the beginning of the century he quitted the Navy and passed the remainder 

 of his days in the vicinity of London. His collection of plants was left to the 

 Botanic Garden, Edinburgh ; it consists chiefly of cryptogamous plants, Grasses and 

 Cyperaceje. 



Picea Smithiana. 



A tree 120 150 feet high with a conical outline and with a trunk 

 5 7 feet in diameter near the base, covered with brownish grey bark 

 tesselated with shallow cracks. In Great Britain an elegant tree 

 of elongated conical outline usually furnished with branches from the 

 base. Branches spreading and ramified laterally, the lowermost more 

 or less deflexed and often sweeping the ground. Branchlets opposite en- 

 alternate, quite pendulous, often much elongated, with yellowish white 

 bark spirally grooved. Buds ovoid-cylindric, the larger terminal ones. 

 0'25 inch long, with ovate reddish brown perulae. Leaves persistent 

 f olir five years, linear - acicular, obscurely four-angled, compressed 

 laterally, pungent, 0'75 2'5 inches long, pointing forwards and falcately 



* Fine specimens of Picea sitchensis from 70 100 feet high are frequent : In England 

 at Monk Coniston, Lancashire ; Patterdale Hall, Cumberland ; Bowood Park and Fonthill 

 Abbey, Wiltshire ; Bicton, Devonshire ; Carclew, Cornwall. In Scotland at Castle Menzies, 

 Murthly Castle, Ochtertyre, Keillour, and Scone Palace in Perthshire. In Ireland at 

 Curraghmore, Co. Waterford ; Fota Island, Cork ; Coollattin, Co. Wicklow ; Castlewellan, 

 Co. Down ; Shane's Castle, Antrim ; and other places. 



