SOME FEATURES OF INTEREST IN THE ORDER OF CONIFERS. 13 



what he did, although it would have been better had he adopted the 

 part-name taxifolia. Accordingly, as this last word is decidedly 

 older in its application than is "Douglasii," Dr. Britton proposes 

 to call the tree in future Pseudotsuga taxifolia, Britton. This 

 plan we venture to think is objectionable and unfair to Carriere. 

 Had the latter botanist been proved to be in error in his deter- 

 mination, it might have been right to have rejected his name ; 

 but as Carriere was quite within his rights in framing the name 

 Pseudotsuga Douglasii, and no one proposes to alter the generic 

 name he adopted, it seems unfair to deprive him of his rights as a 

 nomenclator. The new-old name is further open to objection in- 

 asmuch as, by implication at least, it leads the reader to assume 

 that Dr. Britton has in some way or another contributed to 

 our scientific knowledge of the tree. This, indeed, may be so, 

 but so far as we know his only title is that of unearthing a partial 

 and incomplete appellation that once it might have been better 

 to have adopted, but which, under the circumstances, may now 

 be more advantageously forgotten, or at best consigned to the list 

 of synonyms. Where no important principle and no injustice are 

 involved we may be excused for following established custom and 

 the law of convenience rather than inelastic convention. 



Whilst the botanists are settling these points we may as 

 horticulturists, without impropriety and with much convenience, 

 continue to employ the name of the " Douglas Fir." There 

 are occasionally times and circumstances, and this is such a 

 case, when it is best to employ a " popular " name, although in 

 most instances such epithets are unmitigated nuisances, if not 

 worse. 



Introduction of Species into Cultivation. 



In this connection I may be permitted to remind you that, 

 with the exception of the Scotch Pine, the Yew, and the Juniper, 

 no species of Conifer is wild in Great Britain, and that in con- 

 sequence we are, and always have been, largely dependent on 

 foreign supplies. Our earliest records referring to the introduction 

 of these plants do not go beyond the sixteenth century. We know 

 that the Norway Spruce, the Cypress which grew in Gerard's 

 garden, and was, as he asserts, " well knowen to most," the Arbor 

 Vit89, the Silver Fir, and the Stone Pine were in cultivation 

 prior to 1548, and had probably been introduced much earlier. 



