54 A MANUAL OF THE CONIFKBA 



Carriere's TraiU is undoubtedly a work of great merit, and his views 

 are generally accepted by continental horticulturists. 



The publication of the first edition of M. Carriere's Traite was 

 followed three years afterwards (1858) by that of the Pinetum of 

 the late Mr. Gordon, which became popular, probably, more on account 

 of its being for the time, the only work on the subject available for 

 English readers generally, than for any other reason. As it possesses 

 no claim to be regarded as a scientific treatise, the changes introduced 

 into the nomenclature by the author need not be noticed here. The 

 leading feature of the book is the alphabetical order of arrangement 

 of the genera and species, by which it simply becomes an index for 

 reference. Geographical and other inaccuracies are frequent throughout 

 this work. A Supplement to the Pinetum was added in 1862, and 

 a second edition of the whole appeared in 1875, in which many of 

 the defects and errors of the first are reproduced. 



In 1863 the late Mr. A. Murray gave in a complete form, TJie 

 Pines and Firs of Japan, which had previously appeared in sections 

 in the Transactions of the Royal Horticultural Society. It was com- 

 piled chiefly from specimens brought from Japan by Mr. J. G. Veitch, 

 and from which the author was enabled to revise and correct the 

 descriptions given in Siebold and Zuccarini's Flora Japonica. In the 

 same year appeared the first part of the Pinetum Britannicum, an elaborate 

 and costly illustrated folio work, projected by Messrs. Lawson, of 

 Edinburgh, and issued by them to subscribers only. The magnitude 

 on which the work is planned has, doubtless, been the cause of the 

 long intervals that elapsed between the issue of the parts, and thus 

 rendered its completion hopeless, if not impossible. The last part 

 appeared in 1877, bringing up the whole to thirty-seven, in winch only 

 thirty trees are described — a mere fragment of the projected work. 

 Although issued in the name of the proprietors, it is well known that the 

 letterpress of the Pinetum Britannicum was from the pen of the late Mr. 

 Andrew Murray, who also, from time to time, contributed many interesting 

 papers on the Coniferse to the Gardeners' Chronicle and to The Garden. 



The Nadelholzer of Henkel and Hockstetter was published in 1865. 

 A scientific order of the genera, &c, is adopted in this work, but 

 the descriptions are little else than literal translations (into German) 

 from Gordon's Pinetum. A passing notice is all that is necessary for 

 Pinacece, a Handbook of the Pines and Firs by J. E. Nelson, under 

 the pseudonym of Senilis. Its only merit, if merit it is, is originality, 

 which no one on perusal of a few pages will be disposed to deny to 

 it. Quite of a different character are the highly important contributions 

 to our knowledge of the North American Coniferse that have been 

 made by eminent American botanists, especially by Dr. Newberry, Pacific 

 Railway Report, 1857; Dr. Asa Gray, Address to the American Asso^ 

 nation for the Advancement of Science, 1872 ; Dr. Engelmann, Transac- 



