of New Coniferous Trees from California. 291 



iana, introduced three or four years ago by Jeffrey, the collec- 

 tor sent out by the Edinburgh Oregon Expedition, and as that 

 species is little known (having only been described and figured 

 in a private circular issued by that Association), I shall enter 

 a little more at length into the distinctions between the two 

 than I have done with A. alba. 



Both A. Pattoniana and A. Hookeriana are trees of ex- 

 ceeding beauty, but the former is described by Jeffrey as being 

 150 feet in height, and towering over the rest of the forest. 

 The height of A. Hookeriana was only about 50 feet. One 

 tree that my brother cut down measured 47J feet in height, 

 and was 20 inches in diameter at the stump. The timber is 

 hard and tough. It is more distinguished by its gracefulness 

 than its size. With the exception of Cupressus Lawson- 

 iana (to be presently mentioned)^ my brother describes this as 

 the most beautiful of the new discoveries which his expedition 

 produced. Its gracefulness and elegance were the qualities 

 on which he particularly dwelt. The cones of the two trees 

 give many points by which to distinguish them. They do not 

 differ much in size, but those of A. Pattoniana are of a dark 

 brown colour, and those of A. Hookeriana of a light fawn 

 colour, somewhat of the hue of the cone of our common larch, 

 or of Abies alba. The scales of A. Pattoniana are a third, 

 or a half smaller than A. Hookeriana. They are deeply 

 crenulated quite down to the place which the bract covers, 

 and that place is smooth and prominent. The scales of 

 Hookeriana are not crenulated, an evanescent raised line 

 only shows itself here and there. The shape of its scale 

 also is not regular ; it is cut out on each side, but one side 

 is always more cut out than the other ; where the cutting 

 out has commenced, the scale has thinned off so as to be 

 membranaceous. In A. Pattoniana there is no such thin- 

 ning off nor cutting out. In its scale the place where the 

 two next scales have lain over it is not, or at least is 

 scarcely, to be distinguished from the exposed part. In A. 

 Hookeriana it is very marked, there being an immediate rising 

 or thickening in the line of the scale just beyond where they 

 lay, showing the exposed part very distinctly of a curved tri- 

 angular shape. The surface of the covered part in A. Hooker- 



