IS 
CONK BEARING, OR CONIFEROUS PLANTS. 
CONE BEARING, OR CONIFEROUS PLANTS, AND THEIR ALLIES. 
INTRODUCTORY REMARKS. 
There is no section of vegetation at once 
so beautiful, majestic, and useful as that 
recognised by botanists under the title of 
Coniferae. The trees of this order follow 
nature in all her grander appearances, girding 
her loftiest mountains, and tilling up her un- 
explored and illimitable plains. Lebanon, 
the less famous American forests, the Hima- 
layas, and Rocky Mountains, bear, or have 
borne sufficient evidence of the very striking 
character of those plants. Over these, and 
such districts, the trees in question have long 
cast "a weight of glory." Their height, 
beautiful towering or spreading shape, the 
freshness and perennial nature of their ver- 
dure, their bold standing in the fastnesses of 
rugged mountains, their arms entwined about 
savage rocks, and other characteristics, have 
long afforded imagery for the poet and na- 
turalist. Indeed, the matter-of-fact mea- 
surement of some of the trees is so astonishing 
as to approach almost to the sublime. Douglas 
informs us that, on the north-west coast of 
North America, he found a tree of Lambert's 
pine which had been blown down by the wind, 
and which was certainly not the longest, to 
be 215 feet in length ; its circumference at 3 
feet from the root 57 feet and 9 inches, and at 
134 feet from the root, 17 feet and 5 inches. 
Perhaps the most striking references to the 
grandeur of the tribe of plants now under con- 
sideration, are to be found in the writings of 
the Hebrew poets. The cedar which clothes 
the magnificent ramparts of Lebanon has been 
always looked upon with respect and rever- 
ence. The prodigious bulk of its stem, its 
great roaming branches, its steadfastness 
amidst the fury of the tempest, its resistance 
to the vicissitudes of time, all appear to have 
recommended it as an object calculated to 
excite a feeling of wonder and admiration. 
One of the sacred writers selects it as a figure 
to express the majesty and powers of the 
Almighty : — " The voice of the Lord breaketh 
the Cedars; yea, the Lord breaketh the Cedars 
of Lebanon." The lofty and graceful Deodar, 
again, we find raising the mind even of the 
Hindoos, for they universally regard it as the 
" tree of God," called by them Decadent, 
and specially planted, as they suppose, by his 
Almighty hand. But it is not at all necessary 
to go farther than the north of Scotland for 
living illustrations of the very noble character 
of the objects about to be described. The 
grand old trees of the original Scotch pine, 
growing on the heights of Breniar, Abernethy, 
Rothiemurchy, and Duthil, with their thick 
and long trunks, contorted arms, and shaggy 
spray, add an invaluable feature to the bold 
scenes of that part of the country. Indeed, 
the plants ranged under this order contribute 
very largely to every degree of beauty and 
grandeur observable in the face of the earth ; 
and as the most of them are unchanging in their 
verdure, they form the fittest of all accompani- 
ments to the more enduring appearances of 
nature. To decorate rocks, ravines, frowning 
steeps, and hills, the Scotch pine is admirably 
adapted. For the slopes of hills and for 
plains where a quieter degree of beauty pre- 
vails, the larch, spruce, and silver fir are the 
most appropriate. For deep woodland solem- 
nity, no tree can compete with the cedar of 
Lebanon and the cedar of India, though these 
