PINETUM DANICUM. 



459 



not grown very tall. Another tree imported from England about 

 fifteen years ago has produced cones in Denmark. 



A. bracteata, Hook, and Arn. in Beechey, 394. Pinus venusta^ 

 Dougl. in Comp. Bot. Mag. ii. 152. Pinus hracteata, Don in Linn. 

 Trans, xvii. 443. Picea hracteata, Loud. Arb. Brit. iv. 2348, f. 2256. 

 A. venusta, C. Koch in Dendr. ii. 210. 



Habitat. — Santa Lucia Mountains, California, from the northern 

 boundary of San Luis, Obispo County, about forty miles northward. 



A tree 150-200 feet in height, with a trunk 3-4 feet in diameter ; 

 moist, cold soil, occupying four or five canons between 3,000 and 

 6,000 feet elevation, generally west of the summit of the range (G. R. 

 Yasey). 



Wood heavy, not hard, coarse-grained, compact ; bands of small 

 summer cells broad, resinous, conspicuous ; medullary rays numerous, 

 obscure ; colour light brown tinged with yellow, the sajDwood not seen ; 

 specific gravity, 0*6783; ash, 2*04; probably more valuable than the 

 wood of the other North American Abies (C. S. Sargent). 



This matchless Fir is another of those trophies that rewarded the 

 laborious explorations and keen scrutiny of the veteran explorer of tho 

 North-west, David Douglas, who discovered this tree in March 1831, 



A few paragraphs concerning this event, and the various names the 

 tree has borne, cannot fail to be of interest : — 



Mr. Douglas had made a journey to North-west America in 1825-26, 

 and had explored the Columbia River region industriously, making 

 many important discoveries, especially of Cone-bearers. No sooner 

 had he arrived home and disposed of what specimens he had 

 saved out of his numerous disasters, than he longed to return. 

 Commissioned by the Royal Horticultural Society, he made a second 

 journey in 1830, reaching the mouth of the Columbia River in October. 

 In December he sailed southward, intent on exploring California, 

 which, though a hot country, he was convinced possessed hosts of new 

 trees on its mountains. He passed by the Golden Gate — no one at 

 that date attaching any injportance to the large bay within a nd the little 

 hamlet of " Yerba Buena " on the peninsula — and arrived at Monterey, 

 the capital of the territory, December 22, 1830. So jealous were the 

 Mexican authorities, that Douglas had to spend three months in 

 negotiating for a permit to explore the territory. The little he 

 could move about, unobserved, was richly rewarded however. 



' ' Early as was my visit to the coast, " he writes, ' ' spring had already 

 commenced. The first plant I took in my hand was Bibes sjjeciosum 

 (a native gooseberry), in fall bloom. The same day I added to my 

 new species Nemophila insignis, a humble but lovely plant, the 

 harbinger of Californian spring, and forming a carpet, as it were, of 

 the tenderest azure hue." 



When his permit to explore had arrived, he set out eagerly, and 

 soon had traversed the region round about, reporting his observations 



