Edwards's botanical register, or ornamental flower garden and shrubbery Volume 4 - Tapa blanda

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1841 Excerpt: ...from the plant in the Horticultural Garden. But such an assertion is destitute of all proof: and Dr. Royle by no means supports it; he who had such ample means of studying Indian firs in their native mountains, merely says that the opinions of Mr. Lambert and Professor Don, lead him to suppose there may be some ambiguity on the subject. Certainly then the Abies Morinda of the Horticultural Garden is not A. Smithiana, whatever that may prove to be. Mr. Gordon says that the cones of A. Smithiana are not half the size of those of A. Khutrow. Now the cones of the latter are figured by Dr. Royle, and measure as nearly as may be 6 inches in length; the cones of the former, as figured by Dr. Wallich are 5 inches 6-10ths and a half long; a difference which in such matters amounts to nothing. It is clear therefore that the cones Mr. Gordon has examined are not cones of A. Smithiana at all, which is also confirmed by his statement that the young seedlings of what he calls A. Smithiana, are much slenderer and smaller than those of A. Morinda; a circumstance completely at variance with the character of the former species. That the Chiswick plant is A. Khutrow is asserted positively by Dr. Royle, who says he immediately recognised it. And its foliage corresponds with that represented at t. 14 of his illustrations. While, however, Mr. Gordon seems wrong in his supposition that the Abies Morinda of the Horticultural Garden is A. Smithiana, he is certainly right in saying that he has two distinct kinds of cones of the Abies genus from British India. There are doubtless two Himalayan Spruces, of which one may be called A. Khutrow, while the other bears the name of A. Morinda; but to which the old plant in the Horticultural Garden belongs cannot be determined for the present...