iO PINACEiE. 



side of the branches ; from five to eight inches in length, and from 

 two to three broad ; at first yellowish green, changing to yellowish 

 purple as they arrive at maturity : the scales are somewhat triangular, 

 more or less incurved, and entire margined ; the bracts project, the 

 scales are jagged round the edges, and furnished with a comparatively 

 long broad point, or rather tail, as they are more or less reflexed back- 

 wards : the seeds are not very large, and their wing appendage rather 

 more than an inch long. 



Its branches are disposed in whorls, and the branchlets numerous 

 and regular, and well clothed with foliage ; the bark when young is 

 yellowish green, changing to a yellowish purple, and when matured of a 

 rich cinnamon colour. 



This is another of Douglas's " beautiful and immensely large trees," 

 of it he says, " I spent weeks in a forest composed of it, and day by 

 day ceased not to admire it." It has also been found by other travel- 

 lers in several localities of California and Columbia since Douglas first 

 discovered it. It attains heights of from one hundred and fifty to two 

 hundred feet, and three to four feet in diameter. It is thoroughly 

 hardy, sound in constitution, of tolerably rapid growth, not particu- 

 larly fastidious as to soil and situation ; but fully to develop itself it 

 requires a good, deep, loamy soil, and sheltered locality in this 

 country. Its timber may be termed almost second-class ] ornament, 

 however, is its quality, and in that it takes the very highest rank. Its 

 quasis are Amahilis, Magnifica, and Rohusta, aU of them noble and 

 beautiful. 



PiCEA NORDMANNIANA : JS'ordmann's Silver Fir. 



This kind, although partaking somewhat of the prototype and the 

 great Silver Fir, is nevertheless distinct from either of them, and 

 requires a description. 



Leaves, these are solitary, flat, thick-margined, smooth, linear, 

 emarginate, equal in breadth from apex to base, somewhat twisted at 

 bottom ; rich light, or yellowish green above, and darker green, with 

 the silvery bands, and likewise grooved below. 



Cones, from four to six inches long, and from two to three inches 

 in diameter ; egg-shaped, and blunt pointed ; with short footstalks, 

 growing erect on the upper side of the branches; the scales are cupped, 

 smooth, obtuse, entire, somewhat recurved, closely adpressed and fall- 

 ing off when the seeds are thoroughly ripe : the bracts at first 

 adhere to the scales, but as they mature become free, and extend the 

 scales, and eventually more or less reflexed at their apex ; seeds trian- 



