2 
PINETUM BRITANNICUM. 
equal breadth, from 3 to 6 inches long, 2I to 2\ inches in diameter, with exferted and reflexed membran¬ 
aceous bradls concealing much of the fcales. Scale difpofed in a fpiral of five rows very horizontally, trian¬ 
gular, lamelliform, with the outer margin turned over in a flnuate lip ; ftipitate, covered all over with a clofe 
pubefcenee, moft confpicuous on the outer lip; Tides entire (not ferrate, as reprefented in Loudon’s figure); 
length, without the bradl, from \ to R inch long, and the fame in breadth. Bradt, of variable proportions, 
applied clofely to the back of the fcale; being confolidated to it at the back of the narrow ftipe, where 
it is the breadth of the latter, and folded down upon its Tides; it increafes very flightly in breadth until 
about a quarter of its length from the outer lip of the fcale; it then rapidly widens out into a flat, broad, 
rounded, membranaceous, cinnamon-coloured plate, which turns fuddenly and fharply backward [i. e., down¬ 
wards, when the cone is in its natural eredl pofition), covering the lips of the fcales below it; it has a 
torn, incifed, fringe-like margin, with the apex prolonged into a longer or fhorter ftiff tooth or point. Seeds 
triagonally ovate, compreffed and acute at the bafe, about twice as long as broad, wedge-fhaped, inequila¬ 
teral, irregularly truncate, and fubcrenulate at the top. Wing about twice the length of the feed, ftraight 
both in front and back, prolonging the triangular form of the feed, irregularly truncate at the apex. Tefta 
coriaceous. Cotyledons, 6-8. 
A fpecies of monftrofity fometimes occurs in the catkins, fimilar to that which Dr Alexander Dick- 
fon has defcribed in the “ Tranfadlions of the Botanical Society of Edinburgh” (i860) as bifexual cones 
on the Spruce Fir. The ftamens do nqt continue up to the point of the catkin, but are replaced at the 
tip by a number of long bradls. In the cafes noticed by Dr Dickfon he found a fmall fcale at the bafe of 
thefe bradls; and he therefore, probably rightly, confidered the catkins bifexual, the bradls at the point of the 
catkin being in that cafe equivalent to undeveloped fcales and bradls of the cone. In the fpecimens of P. 
Fig- 7- 
Fig. 6 (fide). 
Fig. 8. 
nobilis to which we refer, there appears no bradl at the bafe of thefe apical quafi-fcales, which mull therefore 
be, not the homologues of the female fcales, but the reprefentatives of the bradls or leaves, and the phe¬ 
nomenon the fame as the common one of a rofe with a green heart, or a bundle of bradls growing in the 
centre of the petals. In the monftrofity referred to, the ftamens are fhorter and rounder than in the normal 
form, and, inftead of the turbinated apex, are drawn up into a long peak [figs. 7 and 8]. This inftance was 
inftrudlive, in other respects, as fhewing the procefs by which the ftamen arrives at its ordinary form. Fig. 7 
fhews the ftamen before it burfts; fig. 8 Thews the tranfverfe rupture; and figs. 4, 5, and 6 the ordinary 
mature form of the ftamen—fig. 4 being a front, fig. 5 a back, and fig. 6 a fide view. 
Defcription .—Perhaps the lovelieft of the Abies tribe : a tree growing to a height of 200 feet, and 4 feet 
in diameter at the bafe. The foliage of a fine green ; when young, of the paleft and moft delicate pea-green, 
which afterwards becomes emerald-green, and, when older, of a darker hue. The branches grow nearly at 
right angles from the trunk, forming a feries of horizontal ftages denfely clothed with beautiful fhort curved 
leaves, which have a fomewhat filvery or mealy ftriation both above and below. The leaves are more curved 
on the younger branches than on the older. The bark is afh-grey on the young leaves ; on the trunk 
cinnamon- 
