124 HISTORY AND GEOCxRAPHY OF TREES. PART I. 



Society, is, perhaps, the largest of the whole. One of these, 

 which had been blown down, measured 215 ft. in length, and 

 57 ft. 9 in. in circumference, at 3 ft. from the ground. The 

 cones of it, which Mr. Douglas sent home, were 16 in. long, and 

 1 1 in. in circumference. The kernel of the seed is sweet and 

 pleasant to the taste, and is eaten by the Indians, either roasted, 

 or pounded into coarse cakes for winter store. The resin, which 

 exudes from the trees when they are partly burned, loses its 

 usual flavour, and acquires a sweet taste ; in which state it is 

 used by the natives as sugar. Another species, named by Mr. 

 Sabine ^4 v bies Douglas?/, attains nearly the size of the above. 



In the spring of 1827 Mr. Douglas traversed the country 

 from Fort Vancouver, across the Rocky Mountains, to Hudson's 

 Bay, where he met Captain (now Sir) John Franklin, Dr. 

 Richardson, and Captain Back, returning from their second 

 overland arctic expedition. With these gentlemen he came to 

 England in the autumn, bringing with him a variety of seeds, as 

 well as specimens of plants and other objects of natural history. 

 Through the kindness of his friend and patron Mr. Sabine, he 

 was introduced to the notice of many of the leading literary and 

 scientific characters in London ; and shortly afterwards he was 

 honoured by being elected, free of expense, a Fellow of the 

 Linnaean, Geological, and Zoological Societies ; to each of 

 which he contributed several papers, since published in their 

 Transactions^ evincing much research and acuteness as a natu- 

 ralist. Some entertaining extracts from his letters to Dr. Hooker 

 were published in Brewster* 's Edinburgh Journal for January, 

 1827; and a genus of plants belonging to the natural order 

 Primulaceae was dedicated to him by Professor Lindley, and 

 defined in Branded Journal for January, 1828. 



After being in London for two years, Mr. Douglas again 

 sailed for Columbia in the autumn of 1829; where he re- 

 mained some time, enjoying his favourite pursuit, and adding 

 largely to his former discoveries. His return was expected by 

 the very ship which brought the tidings of his horrible death ; 

 an event which was occasioned by his falling into a pit made 

 by the natives of the Sandwich Islands for catching wild bulls, 

 one of the latter being in at the time. 



The plants introduced by Mr. Douglas are supposed to be 

 more numerous than those introdnced by any other individual 

 whatever ; and what greatly adds to their value is, that, being 

 from a temperate region, they will all endure the open air in this 

 country. The number of herbaceous species which he intro- 

 duced amounts to nearly 100, and of trees and shrubs to 50. 

 The names of the latter compose the following list, which has 

 been kindly communicated to us by Mr. Munro, the head gar- 

 dener of the London Horticultural Society. 



