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LXI. Remarks on the growth of a peculiar Fir resembling the 

 Pinaster. By Sir C. Lemon, Bart. M. P., F. H. S. 



Read November 5, 1833. 



About four years ago I exhibited to Professor Lindley, Mr. Lam- 

 bert and Mr. Don some specimens of a fir which I found growing 

 in the plantations of this place, and which in foliage very much 

 resembled the Pinaster, but differed from it as widely in other very 

 important characters. They concurred in opinion that it was a 

 variety of Pinaster, perhaps accidental, but at most a permanent 

 variety, induced by circumstances of climate and soil. With that 

 opinion I was of course bound to rest satisfied ; but having since 

 that time observed some hundreds of specimens, and found in each 

 an unbroken constancy of character very inconsistent with the 

 hypothesis of accident or modification, I am induced to offer a few 

 remarks in the hope of drawing the attention of those who plant 

 Pinasters in other counties to this, which appears to be a botanical 

 problem of some interest. I can conceive that by means of the 

 constant communication between Falmouth and distant parts of the 

 world seeds may have been brought from abroad and raised indis- 

 criminately with the Pinaster by some nurseryman, who may have 

 supplied the planters of this county ; but it is still difficult to 

 imagine that any species so accessible should have escaped the 

 observation of botanists and yet remain undescribed. 



The leading characters of this Fir consist in the form and posi- 

 tion of the cone, and the effects on the growth of the tree resulting 

 from that position ; and it is with regard to these points principally 

 that I would contrast it with the common Pinaster, to which it 



