SUPPLEMENT 



TO 



THE PINETUM. 



*;).* In the following enumeration all the leading names are 

 placed alphabeticalhj, and the figures at the head of each species 

 refer to the pages of the Pinetum, wherein the kind is to be found 

 already noticed. 



Gen. ABIES.* Don. The Spruce Firs. 



The Ancients called the Silver Fir " Abies/' and the Spruce 

 Fir " Picea ;" but by some inadvertence Linnceus reversed the 

 names, and thus created great confusion in their nomenclature. 

 The English and American writers still follow Linnaeus, and 

 apply the name Abies to the Spruces, and Picea to the Silver 

 Firs : while nearly all the French, German, and other conti- 

 nental authors follow Bauhin and Du Roi, and reverse the terms ; 

 applying Picea to the Spruces, and Abies to the Silver Firs. 

 Pliny called Abies excelsa " Picea," and distinguished it from 

 the Silver Fir, as the " tonsili facilitata," on account of its fit- 

 ness to be shorn, or clipped into hedges ; and Professor Link 



* The classic name "Abies " is said to be deris^ed from Aheo, to rise or 

 spriag up ; ia allusion to its aspiring habit of growth ; and which Prior 

 so impressively describes in the following lines : 



" There towering firs in conic forms arise, 

 Aad with a pointed spear divide the skies." 



B 



