258 THE BOOK OF EVERGREENS. 



older sections of the genus Abies, and, therefore, on the 

 whole, we think Mr. Gordon is justified in having estab- 

 lished another subsection to receive it, although we wish he 

 had given it some other name. It will not rank with any 

 of Endlicher's sections, Tsuga, Abies, or Larix, because 

 the scales of its cone are not persistent ; and it will not 

 rank with Cedrus, because its leaves are deciduous ; nor 

 with Picea, because they are not solitary, nor persistent." 



The following extracts are from Fortune's description : 

 " I have been acquainted with this interesting tree for sev- 

 eral years in China, but only in gardens, and as a pot 

 plant in a dwarf state. The Chinese, by their favorite 

 system of dwarfing, contrive to make it, when only a foot 

 and a half or two feet high, have all the characters of an 

 aged Cedar of Lebanon. It is called by them the Kin-le- 

 sung, or Golden Pine, probably from the rich yellow ap- 

 pearance which the ripened leaves and cones assume dur- 

 ing the autumn." 



Speaking of the first specimens he met with, the same 

 author says : " They were growing in the vicinity of a 

 Buddhist monastery, in the western part of the province 

 of Chekiang, at an elevation of 1,000 or 1,500 feet above 

 the level of the sea. Their steins measured fully 5 feet 

 in circumference, 2 feet from the ground, and carried this 

 size with a slight diminution to the height of 50 feet, that 

 being the height of the lower branches. The total height 



^7 ^ O 



I estimated about 120 or 130 feet. The stems were per- 

 fectly straight throughout, the branches symmetrical, 

 slightly inclined to the horizontal form, and having the 

 appearance of something between the Cedar and Larch." 



The seeds of this new Conifer germinate so readily that 

 it is almost impossible to carry them any great distance 

 after being perfectly ripened. The Gardeners Chronicle 

 says : " If the seeds of this species are cut open when they 

 are ripe, the little germ will be observed in a greeu and 

 growing condition, and this circumstance will readily ac- 



