IV 



of all intelligent cultivators of these interesting plants, 

 and its publication in this country is rendered all the 

 more needful from the fact that British cultivators alone 

 persist in referring the Silver Firs to Picea, and the 

 Spruces to Abies, a practice long abandoned on the 

 Continent, and which has not been adopted in America. 

 And if, as I hope, the correct nomenclature will in future 

 be adopted in regard to the Latin names of these genera, 

 I would further urge a reform in respect of their English 

 equivalents, in so far as to confine the use of the words 

 Pine to the species of Pinus, of Spruce to those of Picea^ 

 and of Silver Fir to those of Abies. We should then be 

 in accordance with the universal practice throughout 

 North America, whioh is the head-quarters of all three 

 genera, where a Pine is never called a Fir, nor a Fir 

 called a Spruce, nor a Spruce a Pine. 



The following historic sketch of the various essays of 

 Botanists to limit the genera and species of Abietineae- 

 shows how divergent have been their views. I have 

 endeavoured to make it more instructive, by giving 

 (where there are materials for doing so) under each 

 attempt the number of species known to its author, thus 

 further showing the progressive discovery of species 

 during the last hundred and eighty years or thereabouts. 



Tournefort, in 1717, indicated the three genera Abies,. 

 Pinus, and Larix (including Cedrus} ; and his Cedrus 

 is Juniperus. 



In 1731 the first edition of Miller's Gardener's 

 Dictionary appeared, where he has Pinus, Cedrus, Larix 

 and Abies with 16 species in all. 



