MEKA.TTJKE OF THE CONlFEfiA 5Ji 



Of the remaining genera in the Order; Actinostrobus, the West Aus- 

 tralian Cypress, was added by Miquel ;* Torreya by Dr. Arne; Lepi- 

 dothamnus and Prumnopitys by Philippi.f The two last named are 

 bouth American Taxads, of which the first is but little known and 

 the Prumnopitys is synonymous with Podocarpus andinus. 



In 1855 M. Carriere, Chef des Pepinieres du Museum d'Histoire 

 Katurelle de Paris, published his Traite General des Convferes, of which 

 a second edition, in an improved and enlarged form, appeared in 1867. 

 In this work botanical descriptions of aU the known species and varieties 

 are given with special minuteness; to these are added, in many instances, 

 the author's views respecting the affinities and identification of the species 

 described, or some interesting observations in reference to them. Direc- 

 tions for the propagation and culture of the species included in each 

 genus are also given, which appear to involve much needless repetition. 

 The purpose of the work is thus practical as well as scientific, but the 

 plan on which it is compiled and the nomenclature adopted are not 

 calcidated to. recommend it to the British reader, and still less to the 

 British horticulturist. Genera are in some instances divided into sub- 

 genera, and the subgeneric name substituted for the generic one, so 

 that names famdiar to British gardeners are, in a manner, lost sight 

 of, and are replaced by others scarcely known, except to the scientific 

 reader, thus adding considerably to an already overburdened nomen- 

 clature, and further entangling the synonyomy. To quote one example — 

 The Firs are assigned to five genera, viz., Tsuga, Pseudotsuga, Abies, 

 Picea, and Keteleeria. Following Link, and other continental botanists, 

 in reversing the Linnaean names of Abies and Picea for the purpose 

 of restoring the original names of Pliny, the former of which, by an 

 inadvertency, Linnaeus had applied to the Spruce, and the latter to 

 the Silver Fir, Carriere calls the Silver Firs, Abies, and the Spruces, 

 Picea; the Hemlock Firs are with him, Tsuga; our Douglas Fir, 

 Pseudotsuga % and, lastly, all indication of connection with the Firs by 

 name, disappears in the case of the remarkable species from North China, 

 which he calls Keteleeria Fortunei.% Carriere also adopts Endlicher's 

 dismemberment of Cupressus and Thuia, enlarging Chamsecyparis 

 with the addition of Siebold's Eetinispora, and also with the 

 Nootka Sound and Lawson's Cypress, the latter of which he calls 

 Chamwcyparis Boursierii, but Siebold's Eetinispora (changed to Eeti- 

 nospora) is retained for R. squavrosa and two or three others, which 

 are now known to be only seminal varieties of well-known types. 



* Late Professor of Botany at Amsterdam. 



t Professor of Botany at Santiago, Chili. 



+ In this nomenclature of the Firs, Carriere is followed by Dr. Engelman> and by Ml'. 

 Bentham and Sir J. D. Hooker in their Genera Plantarum, the last-named authorities 

 including Fortune's Fir in Abies. 



§ See Traite Oineral des Comifircs, p. 260. 



