LIST OF CONIFERS AND TAXADS. 



183 



" Pinet. Brit." refers to the " Pinetum Britannieum " of 

 Eavenscroft previously alluded to. 



References to well-known treatises of older date are given in 

 the books just alluded to, and are not in all cases repeated here ; 

 but the more recent ones, and those not quoted in the text-books, 

 so far as they are of importance to cultivators, are cited at length 

 in the list now given. 



In addition to literary materials, I have had at hand constantly 

 during the preparation of this list collections of dried specimens 

 made by myself during the last few years, through the kindness 

 of the authorities of the Eoyal Gardens, Kew, the directors of 

 many of our botanic gardens at home and abroad, and through 

 the courtesy of very many cultivators of these plants in England 

 and on the Continent. I have also had a considerable number 

 of species growing under my own observation in a young state. 

 The information derived from these living specimens, and from 

 frequent visits of inspection to Kew and various private gardens 

 and nurseries, has been supplemented and controlled by the 

 examination of the specimens in the herbaria and museums at 

 Kew and at the British Museum. These materials served as 

 the basis of my paper on the Comparative Morphology, &c., of the 

 Order in the *' Journal of the Linnean Society," vol. xxvii. (1889), 

 to which the reader is referred for details as to the salient points in 

 the external conformation of these plants. 



The rich collections forwarded to the Conifer Congress at 

 Chiswick from all parts of the kingdom also furnished an admir- 

 able means of knowing what was really in the country, and of 

 appreciating the confusion in the nomenclature. These specimens 

 were systematically gone through by myself, and, with the 

 exception of those from the Eoyal Gardens, Kew, which had 

 frequently been studied before in situ^ scarcely a specimen was 

 left unexamined, at least cursorily. I would fain hope, there- 

 fore, that the proportion of errors, whether of commission or 

 of omission, is not larger than is inevitable in a work of this 

 character, involving so much detail, and drawn up amid frequent 

 interruptions and the constant pressure of other duties. 



NOMENCLATUEE. 



As regards general nomenclature, I have followed the 

 principle acted on by Bentham and Hooker in their standard 



