2286

ARBORETUM AND FRUTICETUM.

PART III.

«cultural Society’s Garden, Jin. longand A in. broad; conical, with straight

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sides, and pointed. {Fig. 2197.) Leavesrather more than 6 in. long. Cone 9 in.long, and 2 in. broad, with a footstalk1 in. long; scale 1| in. long, and ljin.broad. Seeds in. long, and £ in.broad; with the wing, 1J in. long, and| in. broad. A native of Nepal, onmountains. Introduced in 1823.

2197 Description. A tall, handsome, pyra-midal tree, attaining the height of from 90 ft. to120 ft. Branches numerous, ascending, divid-ed, disposed in whorls. Bark entire, smooth,soft, pale grey. Wood white, abounding ina liquid resin. Leaves in fives, very long, slen-der, triquetrous, loose; glaucous green, pli-able ; 5 in. to 7 in. long, roughish on the angles from small teeth ; furnished atthe apex with a small callous mucro, crowded on the branches, particularlytowards the apexes; bicanaliculate above, flat beneath; sheaths about r in.long, caducous, imbricated with numerous, linear-oblong, brown, membrana-ceous scales. Catkins terminal, with numerous membranaceous brown scalesat the base; male ovate, short, obtuse, sessile, dense, collected into a headabout 3 lines long, and 1 in. thick. Stamens monadelphous. Anthers very shortroundish, opening belowlongitudinally, filled withsulphur-coloured pollen ;crest small, roundish,simple, membranaceous;dark-brown, fringed andtorn on the margin ;female oblong, cylindri-cal, in threes or fours,erect, when young pe-dunculate ; scales broad,roundish, imbricated in-wards, coriaceous, thick,margined,smooth. Cones3 or 4 together, cylin-drical, pedunculate, na-ked, smooth ; G-k in. long,pendulous when ripe,

2 in. in diameter, some-what attenuated towardsthe apex; scales broad,wedge-shaped, coriace-ous, thick, closely imbri-cated, smooth; lightbrown; apiculate above,with a short, thick, ob-tuse, dark brown mucro.

Seeds ovate, compressedon both sides; testabony, black, marked with grey spots; wing oblong-obtuse, membranaceous,ferruginous, somewhat cimeter-shaped, reticulate. ( Lamb .) P. excelsa, Mr.Lambert observes, approaches so near in habit, and in the shape of its cones,to P. .Vtrbbus, that, were it not for the simple, round, membranaceous crestof the anthers, it would be almost impossible to distinguish them specifically.The leaves are longer than in P. Ntrobus, and the cones are thicker. Dr.

2199