512 On the growth of a peculiar Fir resembling the Pinaster. 



singly terminating the branch. In the former case the cone itself 

 is sometimes absent ; still no regular leader supplies its place, but 

 a broad disk marks the situation on which the cone should have 

 stood. 



The general appearance of the tree is as a short bushy Pinaster, 

 the stem of which is zig-zag, and the branches close and twiggy. 

 Retarded, as it necessarily is, by the conditions of its growth, of 

 course it does not increase in height pari passu with its neighbours ; 

 but there is nothing dwarfish or diseased in its appearance, nor 

 does it exhibit any peculiarities of constitution to which other Firs 

 are not subject. Occasionally, as do the Pinaster and Scotch Firs, 

 it kills itself by an exuberant bearing of cones ; and it then assumes 

 a very extraordinary aspect, reminding me of the groups of little 

 wooden birds, perched on the ends of sticks, at which the people of 

 Holland and Belgium shoot for prizes with bows and arrows. The 

 foliage is gone and the tree is reduced to a collection of dry sticks, 

 each terminated by a cone. 



The largest tree which I have seen measures 44 inches in girth 

 at 4 feet from the ground, and I believe it to have been planted 

 about 35 years ago ; but there are many of smaller growth assuming 

 all the characters that belong to the variety or species at 8 or 9 

 years of age. 



I have only to add that I have sowed seeds from cones gathered 

 from these trees, and that the young plants, now 3 years old, show 

 symptoms of the same peculiarities. 



Note by the Secretary. 

 From Sir Charles Lemon's observations, as well as from the 

 specimens he has obligingly sent us, it appears that the tree he 

 mentions is a species of Pinus not hitherto described, and which 

 may be thus characterized : 



P. Lemoniana ; foliis geminis, strobilis terminalibus erectis ovoideis obtusis, squamis 

 apice incrassatis angulatis umbilico brevi acuto. . 



