296 Capt. S. E. Cook on Pinus and Abies. 



XXXIV. — On the Pinus and Abies^ with remarks on a New 

 Species, By Captain S. E. Cook, R.N. 



In the paper which was given in a preceding Number (vol. ii. 

 p. 163.) the general distribution of the genera through Europe 

 was stated, as far as my observations and information at that 

 period enabled me to do. Since that time an addition to our 

 knowledge of this branch has been made by the ascertaining a 

 species which was first announced by me to exist in the moun- 

 tains of Ronda, the bearings of which on the positions laid down 

 as to the pinology of Europe are too important not to require 

 its introduction into the system. My information respecting it 

 was too vague, except as to the locality, and that it differed 

 from all the species in the vicinity, to enable me to do more 

 than suppose, that, as I had found the upper parts of the Sierra 

 de Cuenca, which bear some analogy to the mountains of 

 Ronda, clothed with P. sylvestris, that it might possibly be 

 that species ; but having only conjecture to guide me, I pub- 

 lished the notice with the view of drawing the attention of 

 other travellers to the subject. — ^Sketches in Spain,^ vol. ii. 

 p. 239. 



It was the more mortifying to me to leave this point un- 

 determined, owing solely to the late period which my infor- 

 mation was obtained, because I had previously planned and 

 actually commenced a section of the district which w^ould have 

 carried me quite through the centre of the forest, when the 

 death of the horse I rode at Antequera obliged me to return 

 to Malaga, and I had no opportunity of again undertaking it. 

 We are indebted to M. Boissier, who is, I believe, a na- 

 turalist of Geneva, for the information that the tree in ques- 

 tion is a new and undescribed species of the silver fir. 



Great as the interest is to those engaged in the study of 

 this subject by the discovery or observation of a new species, 

 it is enhanced in this instance by its bearing on and connexion 

 with the pinal vegetation of Europe ; and we shall now pro- 

 ceed to place the Pinsapo^, by which provincial name it is 

 most properly designated, in its true position, in which it 



* The term I believe to mean literally gummy, exuding resins. 



