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PINETUM BRITANNICUM. 
many specimens, and in a great measure by the habit and appearance of the tree itself. Taking the facts and 
information as we have them, the conclusion is, that the same form of Douglas Spruce (the tall one) runs 
down the coast line all the way, as far as the coast district has been examined by botanists. 
On the inner range, again (the Rocky Mountains), we have seen that from Pikes Peak a continuous line 
of the other form (the shorter one) runs down into New Mexico. The United States Mexican Boundary 
Reports enable us to take them up there, and in the list of plants collected on that Expedition, we have A bies 
Douglasii recorded as found in the mountains of Western Texas and New Mexico, on the authority of 
Bigelow, and on the mountains east of San Diego, California, on that of Parry. The course of the Mexican 
Boundary Expedition, in the part of the boundary where the tree was met with, is about the 3 2° parallel, or 
3 0 farther to the south than the localities noted in Dr Bigelow’s Report above mentioned; and they also 
were of the shorter type, as we learn from a note appended to the record of locality, viz., “ a noble tree, 
50 to 100 feet high.” 
Of the range and distribution of the tree farther to the south, we are unable to speak with the same con¬ 
fidence, for we have no data of similar accuracy or precision to those with which the admirable Reports of 
the United States Government Surveys have hitherto supplied us. We know that the tree occurs in Mexico 
in more than one place, but it is almost guessing in the dark to do more than state the fact, that the specimens 
obtained in Mexico are of the smaller form, indicating an extension of the range of the Rocky Mountain 
type. Still there are one or two circumstances which, if nothing is hereafter discovered to contradict them, 
would seem to indicate the continuance in Mexico itself of a difference between the Douglas Spruce of the 
eastern mountains and those of the west. The same influences which, more to the north, would appear to 
have altered the character of the tree, are present also in Mexico, and it might be reasonably anticipated that 
they would have some effect there also; and it is so far in conformity with this, that all the specimens of the 
sub-species, Abies Lindleyana, which we have seen from Mexico, are from the eastern range. Roezl’s 
specimens came from Real del Monte, a famous mining place not very far from Tampico (on the east coast). 
Bentham (“Plantae Hartwegianae”) gives Moran as the locality where Hartweg found it. Specimens are also 
in both the Kewand British Museums, marked as from the Sierra Madre, which also runs down the eastern 
side of the country. It is also recorded from Orizaba, and it, too, is on the continuation of the Sierra Madre, 
or eastern side of the ranges. This is the most southern habitat which we have found for it. But we have 
found none on the western ranges; the above, indeed, being all the recorded stations of Abies Douglasii in 
M exico that we have met with. 
On the western mountains, however, there grows something which looks very like it, but is different. It 
was met with by Dr Seeman on the road from Durango to Mazaltan, the western port of North Mexico. 
A specimen of its foliage, with the characteristic scales around its buds (but no cones), is preserved in the 
Herbaria of Kew and the British Museum ; and the only difference that we can see between its foliage and 
that of A. Douglasii is, that the leaves are more pointed. The difference between the two will be seen in 
the figures given under Abies hirtella. There is another specimen, collected by Schiede and Deppe, also 
without cones, in the British Museum, which has even more pointed leaves than that of Dr Seeman. 
It may be that it, too, is a variety of Abies Douglasii , but as it has not the characteristic bud scales 
(which may, however, be due to the period of year when the specimen was collected), we refrain from 
expressing an opinion. But we do not refrain from expressing our belief in the close affinity of Dr Seeman’s 
specimen to Abies Douglasii. Dr Seeman calls it (“Botany of Voyage of H.M.S. Herald”), Abies 
hirtella of Humboldt, and we adopt his nomenclature; but we dissent from his synonymy, which makes it 
identical with A. religiosa of Humboldt, on the ground that, from the description, it is obvious that the 
latter is a Silver Fir, while the specimen of Dr Seeman is undoubtedly a Hemlock Spruce. Humboldt paid 
his visit to Mexico from the Pacific side of the continent, and the locality he gives for Abies hirtella is 
Guarda, between Guchilaque and the city of Mexico, and these are in the western ranges—even Mexico city 
is not on the eastern range. The inference which we feel disposed to draw from the occurrence of this form, 
so like A. Douglasii , on the western side of Mexico, is, that it is its representative there, the difference of the 
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