CHAP. CXIII.

CONl'FERTE. Pl'CEA.

‘2347

Spec. Char., <fc. Leaves 2-rowed, linear, flat, of the same colour on bothsides; sharply 2-toothed at the apex. Crest of the anthers 2-horned.Cones oval; scales trapezoideo-cordate; bracteoles roundish, emarginate,irregularly crenulate. (Don in Lamb. Pin.') Leaves 3 in. long. Cone 4J in.long, 3i in. broad, of an intense purple. A tree of Kamaon, discovered byCaptain Webb and Drs. Govan and Rovle, and introduced by Dr. Roylein 1837.

Description, S[c. A large tree. Trunk straight, covered with an ash-greybark, 80 ft. to 100 ft. high. Branches verticillate, spreading, leafy. Leaves2-rowed, spreading, scattered in insertion, twisted at the base, linear, flat,acutely bidentate at the apex (teeth callous, connivent, and often unequal) ;obtuse and quite entire on the margin ; of the same colour on both sides;shining,marked above with a somewhat depressed line,rather silvery beneath;when young, having an elevated roundish midrib, 2 in. and more in length,and about 1 line broad. Male catkins lateral, scattered, cylindrical, 1 in. long,imbricated with many very short, obtuse, concave, dark yellow scales; scari-ous on the margin. Stamens crowded, imbricated. Filaments very short,distinct. Anthers linear wedge-shaped, dark yellow, 2-celled; crest veryshort, coriaceous, rigid, 2-lobed(lobes divergent, horned) ; cells in-serted beneath, swelled, membra-naceous, opening by an oblong fis-sure; one of the cells sometimesabortive, and hence the anther1-celled. Cones lateral, solitary,erect, oval, very obtuse, 5 in. long,greyish brown : scales trapezoid-heart-shaped, somewhat square, co-riaceous, rigid, striated ; superiormargin roundish, incurved, quiteentire; angles dilated, recurved,roundish, membranaceous, ragged :stalk angled, very short, keeled onboth sides, prolonged above thebase : bracteas very short, roundish,emarginate, irregularly crenulatedon the margin. Seeds small, angled, brown, shining; exterior testa(primine) disjoined on the inner side, from the growth of the ovule,lengthened into the large, quite entire, axe-shaped, pale brown wing; inte-rior (secundine) closely investing the nucleus, terminated by a very short,paler, irregularly crenulated wing. (D. Don.) P. Webb iana differs in havingleaves only half as long, obtusely emarginate, silvery beneath; cones cylin-drical, longer; scales kidney-shaped, roundish ; bracteoles oblong, apiculate ;and finally in the seeds and wing being of a pale bright brown. (Id.) Pro-fessor Don observes that P. Pmdrow is liable to be confounded with P.Webb iana; but that the former is readily distinguished from the latter by itslonger and acutely bidented leaves, of nearly the same colour on both sur-faces ; and by its shorter and thicker cones, with trapezoid-formed scales, androunded notched bracteoles. Dr. Royle, who appears to have been the onlybotanist who found the tree either in flower or in fruit, states that it grows toa large size, varying from 80 ft. to upwards of 100 ft. in height, with widelyspreading branches; and that he met with it at an elevation of 1000 ft. abovethe level of the sea. From cones presented by Dr. Royle to the Horticul-tural Society, one or two plants were raised, in 1837, by the care and attentionof Mr. Gordon. It is difficult to decide in the case of any species of A bie-tinae from very young seedling plants; nevertheless, from those in the Hor-ticultural Society’s Garden, and especially from the incipient bifurcations ofthe leaves at the apex, we feel disposed to consider P. Pmdrow as only a varietyof P. Webb iana.