INTRODUCTION. 



Ixxiii 



fertile flower. No order can be named of more 

 universal importance to mankind than this, whe- 

 ther we view it with reference to its timber or its 

 secretions. Gigantic in size, rapid in growth, 

 noble in aspect, robust in constitution, these 

 trees form a considerable portion of woods or 

 plantations in cultivated countries, and of forests 

 in temperate countries vrhere Nature remains in 

 a savage state. Their timber, in commerce, is 

 know^n under the names of deal, fir, pine, and cedar, 

 and is principally the wood of the Spruce, the 

 Larch, the Scotch Fir, the Weymouth Pine, and 

 the Virginian Cedar : but others are of at least 

 equal, if not greater value. Finns palustris is 

 the Virginian Pine, so la^rgely employed in the 

 navy for masts. The gates of Constantinople, 

 famous for having stood from the time of Con- 

 stantino to that of Pope Eugene IV., a period of 

 eleven hundred years, were of Cypress. The 

 Norfolk Island Pine (^Araiicaria excelsa) and the 

 Kaurie tree of New^ Zealand attain the height of 

 200 feet, and the latter yields an invaluable, light, 

 compact wood, free from knots, from wdiich the 

 finest masts in the navy are now prepared. But 

 they are both surpassed by the stupendous Pines 

 of northwest America, one of which, Pimis Lam- 

 bertiana, is reported to attain the height of 230 

 feet ; and another, Abies Douglasii, to equal or 

 even to exceed it," {Lindley,) Great though 

 their value be as timber, they are yet more valu- 

 able for their copious secretion of substances 

 useful in the arts and sciences. Pitch, tar, 

 turpentine, resin. Burgundy pitch, Hungarian 

 balsam, Canada balsam, &c., are furnished by some 

 one or more of these trees ; and the seeds of the 



