ABIES DOUGLASII. 
On these points there is here a great similarity to the Cedars ; and if we admit them to rank as species, 
which we have done, we cannot well see how we should deal differently with these forms of Abies Donglasu. 
As with the latter, each Cedar is found in a distinct geographical locality, to which it is limited. As in it, 
each type of Cedar has a different habit or port of its own, and two of them at least (the Deodar and the 
Cedar of Lebanon) have, like them, a different quality of timber; but the two Douglas Spruces are more 
close to each other, and the geographical habitats less distant, and possibly touching each other at one extre¬ 
mity : points of difference which we endeavour to indicate by ranking the one as a sub-species of the other. 
Besides the species or variety, Abies Lindleyana, there are other forms of the Douglas Spruce, (not 
horticultural varieties, or nurserymen’s species—which are the product of cultivation, and which are often 
merely instances of individual constitution—but well recognised differences of character) occurring in their 
native forests: in British Columbia, for instance, there is a variety known as the Black Fir—not the tree 
to which the name Black Fir is usually applied, which is Abies Menziesii, but a form of A. Douglasii. 
This is probably the dark green variety known to nurserymen as A. Dotiglasii taxifolia of Loudon and 
Drummond (not of Gordon), which is spoken of by Dr Lindley, from Douglas’s introduction or information 
(“ Penny Cyclopaedia,” i., p. 32), as of so deep a green that it would seem as if it were more nearly one of the 
Yews than the Spruces. There is a great deal of confusion among nurserymen about this variety, some, in 
accordance with the information given by Mr Gordon in his “Pinetum,” supposing it to be the Mexican 
form. But that author, in his description of the variety, has mixed up the characters of the Oregon and 
Mexican forms, as well as the localities themselves, so that no dependence can be placed on his statement. 
► 
The Douglas Spruce in Columbia is generally known by the name of Red Fir. 
There is another Fir described by Humboldt under the name of Abies hirtella , the foliage of which is 
veiy similar to that of the Douglas Spruce, but its leaves are acute instead of obtuse. Its cone is not known. 
Geographical Distribution .—The statement regarding the range of Abies Douglasii given by Sir W. 
Hooker (“Flora Boreale Americana,” p. 163), on the authority of Douglas, was, that the principal part of the 
gloomy forests of North-West America, in the valleys of the Rocky Mountains, and throughout the interior 
skirting those mountains, was composed of it. 
Additional information has shewn that this statement is not correct; and if we are to separate the species 
into two sections it will be still less so. As it is in a great measure on their geographical distribution that it 
must depend whether this should be done or not, we shall, by a careful examination of all the localities 
recorded, and of the character of the trees found in them, endeavour to discriminate the districts in which 
each kind is found; and while thus obtaining an accurate definition of the range of every thing bearing the 
appearance of A bies Douglasii , as well as of that of each of its varieties, secure additional data for determin¬ 
ing whether there are more than one species or variety or not. As such data are comparatively valueless, 
unless, along with the information where the tree is found, it be also noted where it is not found, we shall 
specify both as far as we can, and at same time indicate those portions of the country which have not been 
yet examined, so that they may not be unwarrantably added either to the one or the other. 
Beginning at Sitcha, the northernmost point of the west coast of America, which has been examined by 
botanists (except the icy regions where it does not occur), the species does not grow there; at least we find that 
Bongard, who published an account of its botany as explored by Mertens (“Memoires de l’Academie 
Imperiale de St Petersburg,” 6 ser., vol. ii., “Sciences”, p. 119), does not mention it.^ Of the country lying 
between Sitcha and Fraser’s River we know little or nothing botanically. The first place to the south of 
Sitcha, or where we get upon known ground, is British Columbia, including Vancouver’s Island, where the 
tree is found in great abundance. Vancouver’s Island is full of it. It was first discovered there, in Nootka 
Sound, 
The whole of the Conifers mentioned by Bongard as found by Mertens in Sitcha are— Juniperus nana [perhaps contorta , which is the wes¬ 
tern representative of inops ]; Finns Canadensis [perhaps one of the western Hemlock Spruces, as Abies Albertiana, or Hookeriana , or Pattoniana ]; 
Pinus inops, Pinus Mertensiana, Pinus Sitchensis [perhaps Menziesiip, and Thuja excelsa. 
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