460 TSUGA ALBEKTIAXA. 



Tsuga Albertiana, supra. 



T. Mertensiana, Carriere, Traite Conif. ed. II. 250 (excl. Pinus Mertensiana, 

 Bongard). Engelmann in Brewer and Watson's Bot. Califor. II. 126. Macoun, 

 Cat. Canad Plants, 417. Beissner, Xadelholzk. 403, with fig. Masters in Gard. 

 Chron. XXIII. (1885), p. 175, with tig. ; and Journ. R. Hort. Soc. XIV. 255. 



T. heterophylla, Sargent, Silva N. Anier. XII. 73, t. 605 (1898). 



Abies Albertiana, Murray in Proceed. R. Hort. Soc. III. 149, with fig. (1863). 

 Lawson, Pinet. Brit II. Ill, t. 16, and figs Kent in Veitch's Manual, ed. L 113. 

 Hntchinson in Trans. High. Agr. Soc. 1879. 



A. Mertensiana, Gordon, Pinet. ed. II. 29 (excl. Pinus Mertensiana, Bongard). 



A. Bridgesii, Kellogg in Proceed. Califor. Acad. Sc. II. 8 (1863) 



Pinns canadensis, Bongard, Yeg. de Sitka in Mem. Acad. Imp. St. Petersb. II. 

 163 (1832), not Linnreus. Hooker, W. Fl. Bor. Amer. II. 164 (in part). 



P. Mertensiana, Parlatore, D. C. Prodr. XVI. 428 (not Bongard). 



Eng. Prince Albert's Fir. Amer. Western Hemlock Fir. Fr Tsuga de Californie. 

 Germ.. Westamerikanische Schierlingstanne. Ital. Abete del Principe Alberto. 



Tsuga Albertiana is the largest of the Hemlock Firs, simulating in its 

 stately proportions the other gigantic Abietinese of north-west America, 

 with some of which it is in places associated. Its northern limit, so 

 far as at present known, is the island of Sitka and the adjacent 

 littoral of Alaska, whence it spreads southwards through the islands 

 and coast region of British Columbia to north California. It also 

 has a considerable range inland ; from the Selkirk and Gold 

 mountains in British Columbia it extends southwards into Idaho 

 along the Bitter Root, and also along the Cascade mountains to 

 southern Oregon. It was discovered in 1826 by David Douglas 

 during his first mission to north-west America, who mistook it for 

 T. canadensis \ Bongard fell into the same error in his " Observations sur 

 la Vegetation de 1'ile de Sitka," when dealing with Mertens' herbarium 

 specimens gathered in Sitka shortly afterwards. There is, however, 

 evidence that the tree had been previously seen by Menzies in 1792, 

 during Vancouver's cruise along the north-west coast of America, 

 and he too might have mistaken it for the Canadian Hemlock, 

 from which there is little to distinguish it besides its larger size, its 

 larger cones with more elongated scales, its larger seed wings, and its 

 finer and straighter-grained wood. 



Tsuga Albertiana was introduced into Great Britain in 1851 by the 

 Scottish Oregon Association through their collector, John Jeffrey, and 

 named in compliment to the late Prince Consort who was a patron of 

 the Association. As seen in this country it is a very graceful tree and 

 one of the most effective Conifers for the park and landscape on account 

 of its broad sweeping habit, and presenting generally the appearance of 

 " a pile of thick foliage out of which spring a multitude of long whip-like 

 shoots which hang down like the slender sprays of a Weeping Willow." 

 The older trees are now assuming a distinctly pyramidal outline broken 

 by the long, lithe, terminal shoots, their lowermost brandies making a 

 sweep of over 30 feet, so that a space with a radius greater than 

 this must be allowed to secure a good specimen.' 5 '" ^Xo coniferous tree 



* Fine specimens of Tsuga Albertiana 70 to 80 feet high are growing at Westonbirt, 

 Gloucestershire ; Eastnor Castle, Herefordshire ; Fonthill Abbey, Wilts ; Linton. Park, 

 Maidstone ; Monk Coniston, Lancashire ; Castle Menzies and Methven Castle, Perthshire : 

 Riccarton, Midlothian. Trees 60 to 70 feet high are frequent from Perthshire southwards. 



