182 
June, 
THE GARDENER’S MONTHL Y. 
18 
long since severed their immediate connection 
with the centers of distribution. 
Thus we find on the Eocky Mountains, and 
especially on their Alpine summits, many plants 
which are familiar inhabitants of the European 
Alps, or the Scotch mountains, or the Siberian 
Altai, or even of our eastern Mount Washington 
and similar peaks. 
But in the pine family we meet in the Eocky 
Mountains, never the same, but often similar 
species—representative species as they have been 
termed. Not a single pine in that region is iden¬ 
tical with Eastern pines, or with those of the 
Old World. On the other hand, the similarity 
of the coniferous vegetation of these mountains 
and that of 
THE CALIFORNIA SIERRAS 
is very great. Almost all the coniferse of Colora¬ 
do extend to or reappear in California ; but this 
atter country produces quite a numer of species 
unknown in Colorado. It is richer in varied 
forms, as we may expect from the varied condi¬ 
tions of soil and climate. 
And yet even the limited extent of the Colorado 
mountains nourishes a large number of species. 
We find there ten different pines and three juni¬ 
pers. Ten of these thirteen conifers may be seen 
in a certain district of Colorado—the heart of 
the mountains it may be called—within a couple 
of miles. 
But do not think that these pines are indis¬ 
criminately mixed, like the trees in a park or an 
arboretum. Oh, no; all occupy their distinct 
and peculiar stations, though some are more 
generally distributed, while other are confined 
to certain latitudes and altitudes. 
Enough of abstract generalizations, which 
may become tedious. 
Follow me rather into the mountains, where 
some of you may have rusticated, and may have 
seen for yourself, if you have an eye for such 
observations. 
Not far from Denver, between two table-moun¬ 
tains, at Golden, opens the picturesque Clear 
Creek Talley, which cuts through the mountains 
from west to east, and carries the waters from 
the highest range—they call it the Snowy Eange 
—roaring or tumbling down to the Platte Eiver, 
and thus finally to the Missouri, and then past 
our city, as a minute tribute to the Mississippi 
Eiver. 
In that wild gorge between overhanging cliffs, 
sometimes rising to the height of500 feet, we would 
not expect forests ; scarcely trees find a foothold, 
yet here and there where the slopes are not too 
steep, or the rocks leave a little margin on the 2 
edges of the creek, are seen two of the most * 
wide-spread conifers of these mountains, and, in j 
fact, of the whole elevated region from the forty- ^ 
ninth parallel down into Mexico. ^ 
The first and foremost of these is the heavy pine 
Pinus ponderosa; the other is the Douglas spruce, J 
called by the mountaineers, usually—for there • 
3 great latitude and individual liberty in the use ^ 
of such names in a new country—called, as I 
say, yellow pine and hemlock, in remembrance \ 
of the trees with which the colonists had been ^ 
familiar in their far off Eastern home. 
I have got to speak of names, words, and am 
thus trenching upon ground which my predeces- 
in this hall, in last week’s lecture, has so 
charmingly illustrated. But I fear that I cannot 
entirely agree with him. The names familiar to 
us as those of the homes of our youth, certainly 
revive the pleasantest associations, and if we 
give them to our new abode, if we found a 
New York or a Kouvelle Orleans, no fault x 
can be found. But if the first settlers, with 
more imagination than knowledge, thought they j ^ r( 
recognized in our j unipers a cedar, or in that 
other conifer a hemlock, and adopted these names mu( 
for entirely different objects, they adopted errors 
and propagated them, and by the lapse of time 
the abuse has become a use, sanctioned by gen¬ 
eral consent. 
AMERICAN JUNIPERS WILL FOREVER REMAIN 
CEDARS, 
though no real cedar may be found nearer than 
theLebanon, theTaurus, or the Atlas. But we may 
attempt, with some hope of success, to prevent the |djgi e s 
introduction of false names in our day. We find 
no Eastern white pine or yellow pine or hemlock 
or balsam in these mountains ; and people would 
understand one another better if they could agree 
upon appropriate names for objects which are of 
daily use and interest. 
But let us return to our pines. Both species 
were discovered and brought to the knowledge 
of horticulturists and botanists by that intrepid 
Scotch traveler, David Douglas, who, not quite 
fifty years ago, explored the vegetable treasures 
of those then far off wilds which he several times 
fearlessly and successfully penetrated as far as 
the coasts of Oregon and California, to find a 
horrid termination of his adventurous life in the 
pitfalls of the Sandwich Islands. 
Fine trees, raised from the seeds which he 
sent home, now adorn the parks of old England, 
