6 
is a clavis of the genera, where the genus Abies is attri- 
buted to Link, hut the characters given to it are those 
of Link’s Picea ; and in like manner Picea is attributed 
to Link, though the characters given are those of Link’s 
Abies, and they are followed by D. Don in brackets. 
Turning now to the full account of the genera, at 
p. 2293, we find “Abies, D. Don in Lamb. Pin. vol. iii.” 
with the addition of “ Picea, Link ” as a synonym, 
followed by descriptions of the Spruces. And at 
p. 2329 we have “ Picea, D. Don in Lamb. Pin. vol. iii ,” 
with Abies, Link, as a synonym; followed by descrip- 
tions of the Silver Firs. Now not only was the edition 
of Lambert’s work subsequent to Link’s establishment 
of Picea for Spruces and Abies for Silver Firs, but Don 
nowhere in Lambert’s Genies Pinus proposed these 
names as generic. Disregarding this blundering, which 
probably originated in the elaboration of the conifers 
being a composite work of Don and Loudon working 
apart, there remains but one argument for preferring 
Don’s nomenclature, which is, that Linnaeus called the 
Silver Fir Pinus Picea \ and the Spruce P. Abies, assum- 
ing that he was following the practice of the ancients, 
in which he is known to have been mistaken. 
Owing to the great merit and utility of Loudon’s 
Arboretum, his nomenclature has hitherto been uni- 
versally adopted in the United Kingdom. It contains 
descriptions of about 70 species of Abietinece. 
In 1841 Link (in Linncea, vol. xv., p. 481) reviewed 
the whole Tribe of Abietinece, retaining, as before, Pinus, 
Picea,, Abies, Larix, and Cedrus, and enumerating 52 
species 
