4 
PINETUM BRITANNICUM. 
had in moft nurferies. As regards the true A. Mertenfiana , authentic fpecimens of it, collected by 
Efchfcholtz in Sitka, which were received from Profeffor Regel, of St Petersburg, are depofited in the 
collection of the Royal Horticultural Society. 
The fpecies was named in memory of the Prince Confort, chiefly, no doubt, in mournful recog¬ 
nition of the many exalted qualities which made his death a national calamity, but alfo in remembrance 
of his love for coniferous trees, of which he had formed a very complete collection at Osborne. 
In 1861 the Edinburgh Oregon Botanical Affociation was revived, and recommenced its operations 
under the name of the Britifh Columbia Botanical Affociation. Mr Robert Brown, a promifmg young 
Scotch naturalift, was fent out by it to explore Britifh Columbia and Vancouver Ifland. One of the firft 
plants particularly noticed by him was the prefent fpecies, and in 1863 he writes to the Secretary of the 
Affociation, bating that he had found it in Vancouver Bland, and giving a defcription of it. At the 
fame time he mentions that Dr Albert Killogg, Secretary of the Californian Academy, had only recently 
defcribed it as a new fpecies, in the Tranfactions of the Californian Academy of Natural Sciences , under 
the name of Abies Bridged, in honour of Mr Bridges, the botanical collector, who had probably picked 
it up in his explorations and brought it under Dr Killogg’s notice. We have not been able to procure 
a copy or a fight of the volume in which his defcription appeared, but Mr Brown refers to it as being 
the fame tree as he had found. Mr Brown fent home a fupply of feeds, but we believe no dried fpecimens. 
Among the feeds, however, we have found a few ftray leaves which we have been able to identify with the 
leaves of A. Albertiana. 
Geographical Dijlribution. —Found in Oregon, Northern California, Britifh Columbia, and Van¬ 
couver Bland. If Bongard’s fpecies were the fame as this, we fhould have to extend its range to Sitka. 
Such combination of habitats, however, is oppofed to the ordinary courfe of the laws which regulate the 
diftribution of fpecies. Where the fame fpecies is found at great diftances, the conditions of life at leaf! are 
the fame, although the country be not. An Alpine fpecies is not found in a warm, low-lying plain, nor a 
fwamp plant in an arid defert. Bongard’s account of Sitka is that it is inceffantly raining there. He fays, 
“ The atmofphere is conftantly charged with vapours, which, in condenflng, occaflon almoft continual rains. 
During the whole of the month of July (when he was there) there were fcarcely three or four days when 
the fun appeared, and that only for a few moments.” This does not defcribe the climate either of Oregon 
or Britain, where the prefent fpecies grows fo well. 
Properties and Ufes. —Little is known of the timber. From the appearance of the young tree and 
its growth, it has been fuppofed that it would be like the Larch. Mr Gordon, we fufpedt, copies Lewis 
and Clarke’s ftatement regarding A. heterophylla, when he fays that the “ Timber is white, very foft, and 
yields but little turpentine,” thefe being the very words ufed by them. Mr Brown fays, “ The timber is faid 
to be firmer, finer, and ftraighter-grained than the Canadian Hemlock Spruce.” 
Cidture. —There can be no doubt that this fpecies is hardy, although perhaps not more impregnable 
to the attacks of cold than many others of our efpecial favourites. It flood the fevere winter of i860 with 
impunity, but we learn that in fome places it was injured by the lefs intenfe froft of the winter of 1863. 
Mr Patton, of the Cairnies, wrote us at the time,—“ The large A Ibertianas are untouched by the froft. 
My flock of young ones has been ruined.” It grows quickly, ruffling up with the rapidity of a young 
Larch. It has done beft in loamy foils not too dry. Numerous and thriving fpecimens of this tree have 
been planted in the Royal grounds at Heffe-Darmftadt by Her Royal Highnefs the Princefs Alice, 
doubtlefs in affectionate remembrance of the great and good Prince, her father. 
Commercial Statijlics. —Introduced in 1851, but for feveral years no plants were to be had. It 
is now more plentiful, and at prefent, 1865, the price of young plants from 2\ to 4 feet is 5s. 6d. Mr 
Gordon in his “ Supplement” fays that feeds of this Fir have been largely difpofed of in London by Mr 
Bridges, under the erroneous name of A bies Williamfonii 
