ABIES ALBERTI ANA. 
3 
form, and produced at the end of the fmall twigs. The other points in which it coincides with this fpecies 
are common to moft Firs, and it difagrees with it in refembling a Spruce, in having its ftem terminating like 
the Cedar in a flender-pointed top, in being 180 feet inftead of ioo, and in other minor particulars. Still, 
the fize of the cone is a great leading point;—we know no other Fir as yet defcribed from North-weft 
America, with a cone which could well be confounded with this except A. Mertenftana, fo that it is not 
unlikely that the difcrepancies are referable to error or want of care in the defcription, and that A. 
heterophylla is rightly referred by Mr Gordon to this fpecies. The defcription, however, is too vague to 
warrant citation. We have long thought that the irreconcilability of fome of Lewis and Clarke’s fpecies 
with any fpecies now known, is to be accounted for on the fuppofition that the fpecimens brought home 
by thefe gentlemen had been entrufted, along with the notes relating to them, to Rafinefque to defcribe, 
and that, if no previous jumbling of fpecimens and labels had taken place, fuch a confufton occurred while 
they were in his hands. If the botanift will read his defcriptions with this light, and feparate the purely 
botanical part of them, which could be done at home by the examination of dried fpecimens, from what 
may be called the field obfervations, which could only be made in the country where they grew, he will, 
we think, fee ftrong reafon for fufpedting, as we do, that fome tranfpofition of labels and notes has taken 
place, fo that the wrong technical defcription is credited with the hiftory belonging to fomething elfe. 
When this is done a better guefs at the fpecies can be made; but ftill at the beft it is only a guefs, founded 
on what we acknowledge to be a gratuitous affumption. 
Defcription. —Of the appearance of this tree in its native woods, we have only the general defcription 
that it is a fine graceful tree, ioo feet high. But, to judge from the young plants in this country, much 
higher praife muft be awarded it. One of the oldeft fpecimens in this country is a plant raifed from the 
firft importation, growing at the Cairnies, the property of Mr George Patton, in Perthfhire. Sown in 
1851, it has already reached the height of 20 feet, and forms a pile of thick foliage, out of which fpring 
a multitude of young long whip-like (hoots, which hang down in the moft graceful weeping fafhion. It is 
from a photograph of that tree that the accompanying plate has been drawn. 
Hiftory. —The feed of this tree was fent home by Jeffrey in the firft year of his expedition to Oregon, 
under the name of A. taxifolia. He very probably called it fo under the impreffion that it was A. 
taxifolia of Lambert, by which name A. Douglafii had been firft diftinguifhed by that author. Whatever 
might be his reafon, it was at once feen that taxifolia was a mifnomer. That name had already, before 
Lambert publifhed it, been twice ufed, as a fynonym or for a variety of Abies ( Picea) pectinata —viz., by 
Desfontaine, Cat. Hort. Paris , 3d ed., p. 356; and Hift. Arbr., ii. p. 579. It had been fimilarly applied 
by Tournefort, Hift ., 585 ; and alfo ufed for P. Cephalonica by other horticulturifts. The name was for 
fome time, however, ufed to diftinguifh the fpecies—as “ Jeffrey s taxifolia ”—until fome identification or 
defcription of it fhould be publifhed. On frefh arrivals of feed making their appearance, the fpecies feems 
to have undergone examination, and to have been fuppofed to be Bongard’s A bies Mertenftana , at leaft it 
has gradually affumed this name, probably on the ftrength of Mr Gordon’s authority, and is now extenfively 
known and diftributed under it; fome good arboriculturifts, however, referving their opinion, and preferring 
to diftinguifh it by the name of the Californian Hemlock Spruce. 
In his defcription, Bongard omits to give any information as to the fize of his tree, but in the 
“ Catalogue of Coniferous Trees ” publifhed in the fifth volume of the Horticultural Society s Journal, it is 
faid, on the authority of F. Rauch, to be a branching “ fhrub like Abies CanadenfisC This moft probably 
has reference to the Sitka tree; Gordon in his “ Pinetum” fays the fpecies is 100 to 150 feet high; which, 
no doubt, refers to the Oregon tree. 
The materials upon which we have formed our opinion, fo far as regards dried fpecimens and young 
plants of the prefent fpecies, are the following; and although lefs extended as regards A. Mertenftana , are 
ftill fufficient to make it clear that the two plants are diftinfil: The fpecimens of this fpecies collected 
by Jeffrey are preferved in the Kew and Edinburgh Botanical Mufeums, and young plants are to be 
[ 11 ] b had 
