4 
PINETUM BRITANNICUM. 
ways, to reach a height where it could get purer and fresher air to breathe. The character of the tree, as 
developed in this country, is different. Here, as in Oregon, it is obviously going to become an immense 
tree ; but it spreads out its branches on every side freely and widely. In fact, this is one of its most striking 
characters. Its great branches look like large trees growing out of the stem on every side. An examination 
of our portrait plate of Abies Douglasii will shew that its character is quite that which we describe. It is 
the same, we believe, with every large Douglas Spruce in this country. All these, to be sure, stand by 
themselves, with plenty of air and space in which to grow and spread. Those who wish to have very tall 
slender spars fit for masts must obviously plant them closely, and not thin them much. 
The tree is of rapid growth in British Columbia, Oregon, and all along the coast; the rings of annual 
growth being distinct and widely separated. 
All that we have above said relates to the typical form of the tree, as found in the coast regions lying 
between the Pacific and the Cascade range and its southern continuation, the Sierra Nevada. There is 
another form found in the interior, on the Rocky Mountains, and in Mexico, which Roezl has proposed to 
name Abies Lindleyana; and we have found the greatest difficulty in making up our minds whether to in¬ 
clude the latter with the typical form above described or treat it as a separate and distinct species. At last, 
feeling ourselves unable to specify characters which would enable one to distinguish them with anything 
like certainty, we have had recourse to the compromise of treating A. Lindleyana as a sub-species. The 
differences between them may be contrasted as follows, viz.: 
Abies Douglasii. 
Leaves larger. 
Bark of branchlets usually not pubescent. 
Pulvini absent or very faint. 
Cone larger. 
Scales larger, less convex, and with their felt-like texture smooth 
and without or only with slight traces of longitudinal striae. 
Bracts thinner, and with all the terminal cusps very long and sharp. 
So far as our degeneration goes this is more especially 
characteristic of the trees in British Columbia and Oregon, and 
less so of those in California. 
Tree commonly reaching the height of between 200 and 300 feet. 
Timber good. 
Habitat confined to district next the Pacific. 
Sub-sfi. Abies Lindleyana. 
Leaves smaller. 
Bark of branchlets pubescent. 
Pulvini distinct. 
Cone smaller, narrower [fig. 23]. 
Scales smaller and more convex, and with distinct longitudinal 
striae. 
Bracts usually thicker, stiffer, and more pergaminous, the terminal 
middle cusp comparatively shorter, the two lateral ones 
generally terminating in a short jagged point or rounded off, 
although often also acute, but then usually shorter than those 
of A. Douglasii. 
Tree not exceeding 80 or 100 feet in height. 
Timber inferior. 
Habitat in the Rocky Mountains and Mexico. 
The differences in the bracts of the scales of the cone are contrasted in the following figures, viz., 24 
and 25, which are those of Abies Douglasii proper, and figs. 26, 27, 28, and 29, which are those of the sub¬ 
species A. Lindleyana (all both of their natural size and magnified). 
The most important of the above distinctions, and that on which we have chiefly 
gone in separating the sub-species from the species, are the last three, and especially the 
fact that the different forms, so far as we yet 
know, are limited to different districts. Had 
they been mixed up together in the same forests 
and the same country, we should not have 
proposed to treat them as other than varieties. 
Some botanists do not admit that geographical 
distribution should be regarded as of any weight in determining 
species. If, when mixed, specimens cannot be distinguished with 
Fig. 23. Ordinary form of 
cone of sub-species A. 
Lindleyana , from Mexi¬ 
co. 
V 
OJ 
Fig. 24. 
0 
L 
Fig. 25. Fig. 26, 
ml 
\ 
Fig. 
Fig. 29. 
Bracts of Abies Douglasii 
from Columbia. 
Fig. 28. 
Bracts of sub-species A. Lindleyana from 
Mexico. 
certainty from each other, they hold that there is only one species. 
We do not go so far: we think every thing should be taken into account: geographical distribution, as well 
as habit, port, and general appearance. 
Or 
