354 
North  American  Conifer  ce. 
}  Am.  Jour.  Pharm 
t       July,  1897. 
A  CONTRIBUTION  TO  THE  KNOWLEDGE  OF  SOME 
NORTH  AMERICAN  CONIFERS.1 
By  Edson  S.  Bastin  and  Henry  Trimbi^. 
{Concluded  from  page  97,  of  this  Volume.} 
TSUGA  MERTENSIANA,  CARR. 
DISTRIBUTION  AND  GENERAL  CHARACTERS. 
This  species  is  known  as  Western  hemlock  or  Californian  hemlock 
spruce.  It  was  first  named  and  described  by  the  Russian  botanist, 
Bongard,  who  gave  it  the  name  Pinus  Mertensiana,  and  the  locality 
Sitka,  in  Alaska.  It  occurs,  however,  on  the  Pacific  Coast,  from  the 
vicinity  of  San  Francisco  through  Oregon  to  Alaska. 
While  similar  in  appearance  to  our  Eastern  species,  it  is,  when 
fully  developed,  a  tree  of  much  larger  size,  sometimes  attaining  a 
height  of  200  feet.  It  is  also  straighter  grained,  and  has  a  redder 
and  usually  thicker  bark,  but  the  most  distinctive  difference,  per- 
haps, is  in  the  fruits  and  seeds,  the  scales  of  the  cones  being  more 
elongated,  and  the  wings  of  the  seeds  being  relatively  longer  and 
straighter. 
MICROSCOPICAL  STRUCTURE. 
The  barks  of  the  Eastern  and  Western  species  are  the  only  ones 
that  have  been  examined  microscopically.  They  showed,  as  might 
have  been  expected,  a  great  similarity  in  structure,  though  there 
appeared  to  be  some  characters  which  we  may  rely  on  for  distin- 
guishing them.  In  both  it  was  seen  that  cork  formation  begins 
early,  and,  in  all  cases,  where  the  bark  was  taken  from  stems  more 
1  The  death  of  Professor  Bastin  has  necessarily  brought  the  publication  of 
this  series  of  papers  to  a  close.  As  there  was  sufficient  material  left  by  him  to 
nearly  complete  the  structural  description  of  the  Tsuga,  it  was  thought  the 
publication  of  this  paper,  by  completing  the  genus,  would  make  a  more  accept- 
able ending.  Professor  Bastin  was  working  on  the  structure  of  Tsuga  Caro- 
liniana  until  shortly  before  his  death,  but  it  is  to  be  regretted  that  the  drawings 
were  not  completed.  As  all  the  originals  of  the  illustrations  in  this  series  of 
papers  were  from  his  pen,  no  attempt  has  been  made  to  have  the  few  remaining 
ones  of  this  genus  completed  by  others. 
A  number  of  reprints  have  been  prepared,  and  copies  will  be  mailed  to  any 
one  applying  for  them,  until  the  supply  is  exhausted. 
It  is  the  hope  and  expectation  of  the  surviving  author  to  continue  the 
chemical  work  on  this  natural  order,  as  a  large  number  of  samples  have  been 
collected,  much  work  has  been  completed,  and  the  results  will  be  published  as 
rapidly  as  possible. 
