4 
PINETUM BRITANNICUM. 
leaf fo much narrower, and the ftomata fo much fewer (but larger and variolofe, i. e., pitted), that it has 
been fuppofed to be a different fpecies ; but the odour of the crufhed leaves or cut twig (which is an admir¬ 
able aid in determining upon doubtful fpecies) betrays its origin, and fhews that it is nothing but a variety 
of P. nobilis. 
* 
Geographical Dijlribution. —Found in many parts of Oregon and Northern California, from the banks 
of the Columbia fouthwards to the Shafta Mountains. It grows at an elevation of from 6000 to 8000 feet; 
and the ground was covered with fnow when Beardfley collehled its feeds in Odlober 1856. Nuttall 
mentions, on the authority of Dr Gairdner, that fpecimens were brought from the Falls of the Columbia 
to Vancouver’s I Hand by the Indians; but we have not met with any notice of its having been actually 
found north of the Columbia. 
✓ 
Hijlory. —The account of the difcovery of this Pine by Douglas, is more meagre than thofe we have 
of moil: of his other introductions. In 1830 a domelfic revolution took place in the management of the 
Horticultural Society, in confequence of which Mr Sabine, the Honorary Secretary, refigned his office. 
Douglas, whofe feelings were warm and affectionate, on becoming acquainted with this, feems to have 
taken it perfonally to heart, and, identifying himfelf with Mr Sabine, felt called on to refign his appoint¬ 
ment of Collector to the Society. Notwithstanding this, he hill fent his collections as a prefent to the 
Society, but the tranfmiffion of his journals ceafed; and to this untoward event, arifing wholly from mif- 
underftanding, is to be attributed the lofs of the latter portion of his journals. To the Horticultural 
Society, during the former expedition, they were from time to time carefully defpatched, and are by them 
ftill carefully preferved; but now there was no one to whom he was bound to communicate the refult of his 
invefligations and labours ; and with the remnant of his collections fent home after his death no journal 
appeared, fave that of his voyage from the Columbia to the Sandwich Iflancls, and his afcent of the Mouna 
Roa. All that is known, therefore, after 1830, of his excurfionsto the Hudfon’s Bay Company’s Territories, 
and in California, where he reaped fuch a glorious harveft of plants, is obtained from his letters to his friends. 
I11 a letter, publifhed in a memoir of him, in the “ Companion to the Botanical Magazine,” vol. ii. p. 147, 
dated “ Entrance of River Columbia, nth Ohlober 1830,” he fays:—“ I have now juft faved the failing of 
the fhip; and, after fixty days of fevere fatigue, have undergone, as I can affure you, one of ftill more trying 
labour, in packing up three chefts of feeds, and writing to Mr Sabine and his brother. . . . The 
captain only waits for this letter, after which the fhip bears away for old England. I am truly forry to 
fee her go without my dried plants, but this is unavoidable, as I have not a bit of well-feafoned wood 
in which to place them, and fhould, moreover, be unwilling to rifk the whole collehtion in one veffel ; and 
the fails are already unfurled, fo that it would be impoffible to attempt dividing them. I however tranf- 
mit one bundle of fix fpecies, exceedingly beautiful, of the genus Pinus. Among thefe, P. nobilis is by 
far the fineft. I fpent three weeks in a foreft compofed of this tree, and day by day could not ceafe to 
admire it; in faCt, my words can be only monotonous expreffions of this feeling.” 
The feeds which accompanied thefe fpecimens arrived in good condition, and were succefsfully grown. 
The young plants were diflributed among the Fellows of the Society, and no fooner began to fhew what 
the tree really was, than it leaped into univerfal favour. Extravagant prices were given for it: fifteen and 
twenty guineas being then no unufual price to be paid for a fine young plant. As it ufually does, the 
demand called forth a fupply; but for a long time this fupply was in a great meafure obtained by making 
cuttings and grafts from the older plants. Indeed, even to the prefent day, a large portion of the young 
plants fold is manufactured in this way. Plants grown from this fource, however, feldom reach the fame 
beauty as the feedling tree. The cuttings, being of courfe taken from the branches, often grow like a 
branch, retaining their one-fided inclination, fending out a flat horizontal leader and two fide-branches, inftead 
of an erect one with a circlet of four or five branches, and it then requires a good deal of training and pruning, 
fometimes 
