ABIES BIIACTEATA. 497 



Abies bracteata is the most remarkable of all the Silver Firs ; 

 its strict but stately habit, its massive deep green foliage, its singular 

 cones, and especially its extremely restricted habitat, have invested 

 it with an especial interest both for botanists and for horticulturists. 

 Its only known habitat is on the outer western ridge of the 

 Santa Lucia mountains in south California, where at the present time 

 " it grows only in a few isolated groves scattered along the moist bottoms 

 of canons, usually at elevations of about 3,000 feet above sea-level." 



This Fir was first described by David Don in the "Transactions of 

 the Linnean Society," loc. cit supra, from herbarium specimens gathered 

 by Dr. Thomas Coulter, to whom he wrongly assigned the merit of 

 being the discoverer of the tree, a statement unfortunately accepted by 

 most subsequent authors. The original discoverer was the intrepid 

 Scotch explorer, David Douglas, during his mission to south California 

 in 1830 1832,* while in the service of the Horticultural Society 

 of London. Neither Douglas nor Coulter collected seeds of Abies 

 bracteata, and when Theodor Hartweg, also in the service of the 

 Horticultural Society of London, arrived at Monterey in 1846 for the 

 express purpose of collecting seeds of this and other Californian Conifers, 

 and had made his way to the Santa Lucia, he found the cones but 

 half grown and frost-bitten, and his attempt to introduce it into 

 European gardens was accordingly frustrated. Six years later, William 

 Lobb, during his mission to the same region for the Veitchian firm, 

 by great exertions obtained a supply of seeds which he transmitted to 

 Exeter in 1853 ; f from these seeds originated all the oldest trees of 

 Abies bracteata now growing in Europe. For upwards of thirty years 

 afterwards all attempts to procure a further supply of seeds proved 

 futile, and it is only quite recently that the Californian seed collectors 

 have succeeded in obtaining from time to time very limited supplies 

 which, in consequence of the gradual extermination of the trees by 

 the fires which are frequent in the forests of the dry coast ranges of 

 south California, may eventually cease altogether. J 



In all the places in Great Britain where Abies bracteata has 

 attained its greatest dimensions unscathed by the severe winters that 

 occur at intervals in this climate, it is as strikingly beautiful as it has 

 been represented to be on the Santa Lucia, and so distinct that no 

 Silver Fir can be more easily detected amidst its surroundings even at 

 a distance. It is hardy in the southern and western counties of 



* See Sir William Hooker's Memoir of Douglas in the "Companion to the Botanical 

 Magazine/' Vol. II. By a comparison of dates it will be seen that Douglas arrived at 

 Monterey in December 1830, but Dr. Coulter did not arrive till the following November ; 

 it was in the interim that Douglas discovered Abies bracteata. 



t Since Lobb's excursion to the Santa Lucia, the greater part of, if not all, the trees seen 

 by him along the summit of the central ridge, arid of which he sent an account to the 

 late Mr. James Veitch (afterwards published in the Botanical Magazine), have been 

 destroyed by the forest fires. 



I In view of the threatened extinction of this noble tree in its native home, I append 

 a list of all the finest specimens in Great Britain known to me, in the hope that the 

 owners will not allow the seeds that may hereafter be produced by them to be wasted or 

 lost. Boconnoc, Cornwall ; Castlewellan, Co. Down ; Castle Kennedy, Wigtownshire ; 

 Eastnor Castle, Ledbury (2) ; Fonthill Abbey, Wilts ; Fota Island, Cork ; Highnam Court, 

 Gloucester ; Kenfield Hall, Canterbury ; Kinnettles, Forfar ; Newcourt, Exeter ; Orton Hall, 

 Peterborough ; Possingworth, Sussex : Streatham Hall, Exeter (2) ; Tortworth Court, 

 Gloucestershire (2) ; Upcott, Barnstaple ; Warnham Court, Horsham. 



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