ABIETIA FORTUNEI. 485 



where he went to live after the completion of his apprenticeship. In 1820 he removed 

 to Glasgow, where he was employed in the Botanic Garden of the University. Here 

 he greatly enlarged his knowledge of Botany, and attracted by his intelligence the 

 notice of Dr. (afterwards Sir W. J.) Hooker, at that time Professor of Botany in 

 Glasgow University, and who made him his companion in his botanical' excursions to 

 the Highlands and other parts of Scotland for the purpose of collecting materials for 

 his "Flora Scotica." By Sir William Hooker he was recommended to the Horticultural 

 Society of London, and thus he became known to Mr. Sabine, at that time the able 

 Secretary of the Society, through whose influence he was appointed Collector to the 

 Society. His first destination was China, but owing to 1he unsettled state of the 

 country, that rich field, afterwards partially but successfully explored by Mr. Robert 

 Fortune under more auspicious circumstances, was abandoned for a time, and Douglas 

 was sent to the United States in 1823, whence he made many valuable additions to 

 our hardy fruits, besides procuring several fine plants till then unknown to British 

 Horticulture. In 1824 it was resolved to send him to the Columbia river, on the 

 western side of the Continent, to explore the vegetable productions of the country 

 adjoining, and southwards to California, of which scarcely anything was at that time 

 known, although a glimpse of the forests of gigantic Conifers covering the coast range 

 had been obtained by Archibald Menzies a quarter of a century previous, when 

 accompanying Vancouver on his interesting voyage. An opportunity occurred through 

 the agency of the Hudson's Bay Company, and he landed at Fort Vancouver, on the 

 banks of the Columbia river, for the first time in April, 1825. From that time till 

 his return to England in 1827 he sent home many beautiful plants, with seeds and 

 dried specimens. Among his earliest introductions were Abietia Douglasii, Pinus pon- 

 derosa and P. Lambertiana. In the spring of 1827 he went from Fort Vancouver 

 across the Rocky Mountains to Hudson's Bay, where he met Captain (afterwards Sir 

 John) Franklin, Dr. Richardson, and Captain (afterwards Sir George) Back, returning 

 from their second overland Arctic Expedition. With these travellers he returned to 

 England, bringing with him the results of his researches. He remained in London 

 two years, and sailed again for the Columbia river in 1829. In addition to his 

 mission as a collector for the Horticultural Society, he was employed by the Colonial 

 Office to take observations on magnetic and atmospheric phenomena, the depart- 

 ment supplying him with instruments and contributing towards his expenses. He 

 reached the Columbia river in June, 1830, and spent the remainder of the year in 

 exploring the neighbouring country, and made some valuable additions to the Pinetum ; 

 the most important being Abies nobilis and Picea sitchensis. The next year he travelled 

 southwards into California, then a comparatively unknown land, where he found a rich 

 harvest of new plants. In 1832 he visited the Sandwich Islands, and returning to 

 the Columbia river in the same year, undertook an expedition to the Fraser river, 

 where he had a very narrow escape of his life, and lost many valuable papers. He 

 finally quitted north-western America in 1833, having previously resigned his appoint- 

 ment as collector to the Horticultural Society in consequence of a revolution in the 

 affairs of the Society which led to the resignation of Mr. Sabine, the Secretary, with 

 whom Douglas identified his interests. He sailed for the Sandwich Islands, where he 

 had remained some months, when an accident put an end to his existence. The natives 

 of the Sandwich Islands were in the habit of making pits in which they caught wild 

 cattle. In one of his excursions Douglas fell accidentally into one of these pits, 

 in which an infuriated animal was already trapped ; the animal fell upon him, and 

 he was found, dreadfully mangled and quite dead, July 12th, 1834. An elegant 

 monument with a suitable inscription has been erected to his memory by subscription 

 in the parish churchyard of New Scone, Perthshire. 



Abietia Portunei. 



A large tree with much of the habit and aspect of a Cedar of 

 Lebanon, the trunk covered with thick rugged bark ; the branches 

 spreading horizontally and much ramified at the distal end. Branchlets 

 glabrous, orange-red, mostly distichous and opposite with occasional 

 adventitious shorter and weaker shoots on the upper side of the axial 

 growth. Buds small, ovoid, with orange-brown perulae, the lowermost 

 of which are prolonged into an acuminate tip. Leaves persistent, 

 spirally arranged but rendered pseudo-distichous by a half twist of the 

 short petiole, linear, rigid, mucronate or spine-tipped, 1 1*25 inch 



