CHAP, CXIII.

CONl'FEISjE. pi'cka.

2329

dimensions of our cedars of Lebanon , which there is no reason to suppose itwill not do in favourable situations, its timber may probably be found as usefulhere as it was in Cephalonia . Should, however, its timber be of no more usethan that of the cedar of Lebanon , it is still in every way as worthy of beingplanted as an ornamental object as that fine tree. As the plant strikes withgreat readiness by cuttings, a number have been propagated in the Devonshirenurseries, and also in the neighbourhood of London . There are plants in thepinetum at Dropmore, and in the garden of Robert Mangles, Esq., of Sun-ninghill. The large plants at Hendon Rectory, and in the pinetum at WoburnAbbey , are upwards of 3 ft. high; but the one at Dropmore is only about18 in. high. Price of plants, in the British nurseries, 2 guineas each.

App. i. Species of A'hies of which little more is known thantheir Names.

A, oboyuta D. Don MS., Picea obov&ta Led. Icon. PI. Fl. Loss., t. 500. Leaves arranged inmany series, curved upwards. Cones erect, cylindrical. Scales abruptly dilated at the cuneate baseinto a quadrangular lamina, broader towards the point. Bracteas somewhat quadrangular, mucro-nate, not half the length of the scale, scarcely broader than the wing of the fruit, which is straight onboth margins towards the apex. Found on the Altai Mountains , at an elevation of5272 ft. Floweringin Mayj not yet introduced. Professor Don informs us, that he strongly suspects this tree to beonly a northern form of//'bies Smithid/m. Ledebour, he says, has committed the same error inregard to his P. obovata, as Dr. Wallicb did in the case of ^4'bies Smithtana ; that is, he has describedthe cones as erect, while, from the other parts of his description, it must belong to A'bies.

A. Mertensi&nsi Bong, and A. sitckensis Bong, are mentioned by M. Bongard in his observations<m the Island of Sitcha, on the west coast of North America , in n. lat. 57°, as indigenous there..The article is quoted in the Annales des Sciences Naturclles, 2d ser., tom. iii. p. 237.; but no descriptionis given. A. trigdna, A. heterophylla , A. aronidtica , A. microphl/lla , A. obliquata, and A. falcataare mentioned by Rafinesque as being found in the Oregon country ; but, as he gives no descriptionof these trees, it is uncertain whether they belong to A'bics or picea. The same observations willapply to A .hirUUa Humboldt et Kunth Nov. Gen. et Sp. Plant. , pi. 2. p. 5., of which nothing isknown either of the flowers or cones j and A. Kcempfirn and A. Thunbdrg ii, mentioned by Thun-berg-, and A. Morni, A. Torano, and A. Arartigi, enumerated by Sieboldt in Verhand. Batav.Genootsch., xii. p. 12., as quoted in Pen . Cyc.

Genus III.

A

FI'CEA D. Don. The Silver Fir. Linn. Syst. Monoe'cia Monadclphia.Identification. D. Don in Lamb . Pin., vol. 3.

Synonymes. Plnus Lin., in part; .4'bies Link, Nees von Esenbeck y and Ledebour \ ^'bies Du lloi,m part; Sapin, Fr .; Tannen , Ger.

Derivation. From pix, pitch ; the. tree producing abundance of resin. Loiseleur Deslongchampsobserves that the silver tir was called by the ancients Abies , and the spruce Picea j and thatFiruiams has created much confusion by reversing the application of the names. He proposes,therefore, to call the silver fir ^'bies vfcra, and the spruce fir yTbies Picea. ( N . Du Ham., v. 2H.note.) Link has divided the spruces and silver firs into two genera, and given the classical namesof Picea to the first genus, and ^'bies to the second (see Abhand. Akad. der Wissenschaften , jahr1827, p. 157.); and in this he has been followed by Nees von Esenbeck , and Ledebour.

Description. Trees remarkable for the regularity and symmetry of theirPyramidal heads ; readily distinguished from the genus of'bies, by their leavesbeing more decidedly in two rows; by their cones being upright, and havingthe scales deciduous; and by the seeds being irregular in form. The nucleus°f the seed is exposed at the inner angle, through a considerable opening inthe outer testa, as if the junction of the two sides had been ruptured by therapid enlargement of the nucleus. (D. Don.) They are natives of Europe ,A s ' a > and America ; but, generally, in regions more temperate than thoseln which the species of spruce abound. In Britain , with the exception ofD. pectinata, they are solely to he considered as ornamental trees.

t l. p. pectina'ta. The comb-like-/«tt>«/ Silver Fir.

Synonynies. A'bies of Pliny; Pious Picea Lin. Sp. PI. , 1420., Syst., ed. Reich,, 4. p. 175., Iiuds,P- 423., Scop. Corn. , No. 1193, Pall. Fl. Ross., 1. p. 7., AUion. Ft. Ped., 2. p. 179., I'm.Ilauph., 3. p. 809., Ait. Hort. Kcw., 3. p. 370., tYilld. Perl. Baumz., p. £17., Hayne bend.,w tides Aitlctt., p. 17., Lamb . Pin., ed. 2., 1. t. 40., Hal. Helv., No. 1517.; P. A'bies Dudot Ilurbk., ed. Pott., t. 2. p. 133., licit, und Abel. Abb., t. 98.; A'bies alba Mi l, Diet. , No. 1., Lin.Hort. a’LP, p. 419 . ; A. 7axi folio Totirn. Inst., p. 585., Du Ham. Art ., 1. p. 8., Jniiti. Pin.,