PICEA NOBILIS. 
5 
fometimes for years, to bring thefe one-fided plants into the fhape of a good tree. The procefs of making 
plants out of grafts and cuttings, alfo, was not well underftood, and was tedious. It confequently became 
an object of importance to procure frefh fupplies of feed from its native country, and various more or lefs 
fuccefsful attempts have been made. No more could be looked for from Douglas. His wanderings were 
over. He had found a grave in an ifland in the far Pacific. The firft attempt to procure it fubfequent 
to Douglas’s importation was made by PI is Grace the Duke of Bedford, the fame duke by whom the “ Pine- 
turn Woburnenfe” was publifhed, or rather printed for private circulation. He took into his counfels, 
and we believe as an affociate in the enterprife, Mr Cuningham, of Comely Bank Nurfery, near Edin¬ 
burgh, a nurferyman well known for his horticultural {kill and zeal, as well as for the number of curious and 
rare plants he had accumulated in his nurfery. Thefe gentlemen engaged a collector, Mr Peter Banks, 
to travel in California and Oregon (at that time hill a fealed region to all but the hunter of the Far Weft), 
for the purpofe of continuing the explorations which Douglas had begun, but more efpecially to procure 
feeds of this Pine. He reached his ground, and fent home a fmall package of it and of fome other feeds, 
and was preparing to fend a larger quantity when he fuddenly difappeared. The ftory which reached this 
country was, that he and three other men were upfet in attempting to crofs one of the rivers. One 
efcaped to tell the tale ; but Mr Banks and the other two were drowned. At any rate, he has never fince 
been heard of, and nothing further was done until the difcovery of the gold diggings of California threw 
open the country. Hartweg, indeed, was fent out in 1846 by the Horticultural Society to Mexico and 
California; but he did not travel fo far north as to reach the diftridt of the P. nobilis. The hrft who 
availed themfelves of the altered ftate of things brought about by that difcovery, were the Edinburgh 
Oregon Botanical Affociation. Jeffrey, a young collebtor, was fent out by them under very favourable 
aufpices, and a good fupply of the feeds of P. nobilis was forwarded by him to this country; but not a 
plant came up. Various were the theories devifed to account for this failure, and not little was the blame 
thrown upon J effrey for its having happened : he had plucked old cones ; he had fent the feed home 
fhelled inftead of in the cone ; he had not properly dried it; he had done this, or neglected to do that. 
In fhort, the feeds had not grown, and the fault mujl be Jeffrey’s. But, fo far as regards this matter, 
he was blamed unjuftly. The feeds were neither gathered too old nor too young, neither did they 
fuffer from the mode of packing; indeed they could not, for before ever they were packed, before ever 
they were plucked, nay, while ftill in the green and foft ftate, they had been penetrated by an infebt 
which had riddled and deftroyed them all. The feeds he fent home were found to be all fo riddled ; 
and although at the time it was thought that fome infebt had attacked them on the way home 
and done the mifchief, it is now perfectly afcertained that this mifchief is done at an early ftage, and 
while the cone is ftill on the tree, as it is only when the cone is in a foft and young ftate that the infebt 
could penetrate the hufk of the feed. The next explorers were Mr William Murray and Mr Beardfley, 
who made two or three expeditions into the interior in fearch of this and other Pines ; and it is to their 
exertions that we owe a great proportion of the feedlings of P. nobilis now in this country. They went 
fully prepared to guard againft any failure from the mode of packing or gathering the feed. They took care 
that the cones gathered fhould be frefh and apparently found; that the feed fhould be ripe: and, to guard 
againft heating, they fent the feeds home in the cone; and, againft the attacks of infebts, they packed them 
among camphor and other fuppofed fearers of infebts. But before they began their gathering, they faw 
that their precautions would be for the moft part vain: the feeds, while in the green ftate, were found to 
have been penetrated by an infebt. It was then that its egg was laid, and it muft have been laid moft 
methodically, fo as not to omit almoft a ftngle feed in a cone ; and the grub fed on the feed, grew with its 
growth, and ftrengthened with its decay. An examination of hundreds of cones fhewed a grub in almoft 
every feed. With their eyes open to this, and picking with the greateft care the cones which feemed to 
have fuffered leaft, they fent home an envoi , which perhaps produced a fcore of plants out of a large cafeful 
of feed. Their fecond expedition was more fuccefsful. The feed was freer from the attacks of the infebt, 
although far from free from them. A third envoi again was a failure. It is a curious circumftance, faid to 
[ 1 ] c be 
