PINETUM BRITANNICUM. 
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dimensions of the British Columbian monarchs. Dr Engelmann, it would appear, never saw the trees him¬ 
self, for he speaks of the appearance of A. Menziesii as communicated to him by Dr Parry, and if he had 
seen the one he must have seen the other; and Dr Parry, in the supplement to his collection in the Rocky 
Mountains, describes the Douglas Spruce found at Pikes Peak as “a very slightly tree, of the average height 
of 80 feet.” It would appear, therefore, that we have here come upon a tree of a different character from 
the typical one in British Columbia. 
One of the United States Pacific Railroad Expeditions (that under Capt. Gunnyon, who, with his 
party, was massacred by the Indians not very far from this region) crossed the Rocky Mountains about a 
degree farther south ; but in the list of plants collected there by M. Creutzfeldt, and named by Dr Torrey and 
Professor Asa Gray, Abies Douglasii does not occur. There is, indeed, an Abies named by Lambert Abies 
taxifolia (“Genus Pinus,” t. 47), marked as found at Roubideau’s Pass (38° N. lat.), and this Abies taxifolia 
is admitted by all to be A. Douglasii; but the A. taxifolia from Roubideau’s Pass cannot be it, for the 
descriptive memorandum mentions that the leaves are glaucous on both sides, which is not the case with 
A. Douglasii , and is very markedly figured, as the reverse in Lambert’s A. taxifolia . The cones of this 
species were not seen, and it may very possibly turn out to be new. 
A stage farther to the south on the Rocky Mountains supplies us with a continuation of Abies Douglasii. 
The United States Pacific Railroad Expedition, under Lieut. Wipple, explored the country in the line of 
the 35 0 parallel, and the tree was found not only on the Rocky Mountains, but on various other mountain 
ranges, reaching, with interruptions, all the way to the Pacific. What inference should be drawn from these 
interruptions, and what value should be attached to them, we shall endeavour presently to estimate. Dr 
Bigelow, who was with that Expedition, gives a summary of the places where the different trees were met 
with, and an ingenious profile map to shew the elevations at which they were found. From these we learn 
that the first place (coming from the eastward) where they met with the Abies Douglasii was on the Sandia 
Mountains, at an elevation of from 6000 to 10,000 feet. These mountains lie a little to the west of what 
may be reckoned the easternmost ridge of the Rocky Mountains, and there it was abundant. They next 
found it on what is called the Sierra Madre, at an elevation of from 7000 to 8000 feet, about 90 miles west 
of the Rio Grande, and there, also, it was abundant. They again observed it, but very sparingly, in the 
mountains around Zuni. After crossing the Rio Colorado Chiquito, they came to a range of mountains, 
of which the most elevated peaks were San Francisco Mountain, Bill Williams Mountain, and Mount 
Sitgreaves, where it was abundant, at an elevation of from 7000 to 10,000 feet. There was a belt of 44 
miles or more in width, stretching in a south-easterly direction to the Mogoyon (Mogollon) or Sierra Blanca, 
probably as far as the head waters of the Gila. At the Copper Mines near the Gila, Dr Bigelow, 
while connected with the Mexican Survey, had previously found it in abundance, as well as at the Organ 
Mountains near Donna Anna. At Aztec Pass, 100 miles west of San Francisco Mountain, it was found 
again, but not so abundantly as at the latter mountain. 
Now, all the above localities, although separated from each other by intervals of 30, 40, or 60 miles, are 
in fact part of the Rocky Mountain range. At about 40° that range widens out southwards, encroaching 
upon the desert basins to its west, and breaking into many parallel as well as transverse ranges. The above 
habitats are all on one or other of the ranges, and they can only be considered as different parts of one whole. 
The Abies Douglasii at all of them are of the same character as those found by Dr Parry at Pikes Peak. 
Dr Bigelow says of them: “On the mountains of the Sierra Madre, east and west of the Rio Grande, at 
San Francisco Mount, and its vicinity near the two Colorados, at the Organ Mountains, and those of the 
Mimbres near the Copper Mines, this tree grows from 90 to 120 feet in height, and from 3 to 6 feet in 
diameter.” 
The next step westwards is not equally bridged over. That next step rests on the Sierra Nevada, 
which, not far from this, turns westwards in its southern course, and combines with what, farther north, was 
called the Coast Range. On it, and along the whole Coast Range as far as Los Angelos, the Abies Douglasii 
was 
