ON CONIFERS. 



337 



Although I cannot attempt separate lists of names, I must draw 

 attention to the five or six species cultivated as Hemlock Firs. 

 They are Abies Albertiana, A. canadensis, A. Hookeriana, A. 

 Pattoniana, and the giant of the family, A. Douglasii. Our 

 friends the Larches, the Cedars, and the Pines cannot be mis- 

 taken : the first makes a handsome lawn specimen ; the second is 

 the king of Conifers ; and the Pines, divided into three sections, 

 Binae with two leaves in a sheath, Ternae with three, and Quinae 

 with five, include more species than any other genus in the 

 order, and are distributed over a greater geographical area. The 

 two-leaved Pines, with one exception, are not found within the 

 Tropics, but are most frequently met with in the northern 

 temperate regions of both hemispheres. All the European 

 species, P. Cembra excepted, belong to this section, from which 

 we obtain so much valuable timber. P. austriaca, P. Laricio, 

 P. mitis, P. Pinea, P. resinosa, and P. sylvestris belong to this 

 section. The three-leaved Pines include some two dozen 

 species, mostly long in the leaf, and very handsome ; but, 

 with the exception of P. insignis, P. Jeffreyi, P. macrocarpa, 

 P. ponderosa, P. Sabiniana, and P. tuberculata, they are par- 

 tially or entirely tender in this country. P. rigida produces 

 the Pitch Pine of commerce ; P. Benthamiana, P. Sinclairiana, 

 P. Parryana, and P. Beardsleyi, so handsome and useful in our 

 Pineta, are considered to be synonyms of P. ponderosa, hence 

 my omission of these names from my lists of the true Pines. 



The five-leaved Pines contain some remarkable species, but 

 many of them unfortunately are tender. They are widely distri- 

 buted, examples being found in Mexico, California, the Himalayas, 

 Japan, and Central Europe. P. Montezuma? and P. leiophylla, of 

 which I produce specimens, are not generally hardy. P. Cembra, 

 the Swiss, and P. parviflora, the Japan Stone Pines, are slow- 

 growing gems. P. Lambertiana (the Sugar Pine), P. excel sa, 

 and P. Strobus are handsome giants, yielding fairly valuable 

 soft white timber, and are indispensable in the Pinetum. P. 

 Lambertiana has the largest and P. parviflora the smallest cones 

 of any Pines with which I am acquainted. 



Passing the well-known Araucaria, now proved monoecious, 

 we come to the Taxodiae, or deciduous Cypress group, a tribe of 

 half-a-dozen small families, some of them very important in this 

 country. The Wellingtonia, the Sequoia sempervirens— at one 



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