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mountains of northern Guatemala (lat. 15°), where it was observed by Hartweg’ and collected by Skinner. It is known to the natives as Oyamel, and occurs mainly in forests at 8000 to 10,000 feet, though it occasionally descends to 4000 feet. It apparently reaches its best development on the Campanario, the highest point of the mountains of Angangueo, a range about 100 miles west of the city of Mexico. Here Hartweg found trees 150 feet in height and 5 to 6 feet indiameter. Parry and Palmer collected it in the province of San Luis Potosi in Central Mexico, and gave its range as from 6000 to 8000 feet. Linden found it on the peak of Orizaba, inland from Vera Cruz, growing between 9000 and 10,000 feet elevation.

Stahl, in Karsten and Schenk’s Vegetationsbilder, 2 Reihe, Heft 3, gives a good account of this tree, which he found growing near Orizaba between 2600 and 3500 metres above sea-level, and in the higher mountains round the valley of Mexico, in pure forests or mixed with pines, oaks, and alders. He gives no dimensions, and the two excellent figures 17 and 18 taken in the Sierra de Ajusco, near Salazar, at about 9500 feet, show the trees to be smaller there than those which Elwes saw on Popocatapetl.?

Dr. Gadow ® found it growing in the mountains of Omiltelme, at 8000 feet ; and describes the trees as “veritable giants, from 5 to 6 feet in diameter, as straight as a mast, and may be 100 feet high.”

Humboldt supposed that there were two species, one with glabrous and the other with pubescent branchlets; but Seemann and Hartweg were convinced that this distinction is unfounded ; and the type specimen of Pznus redzgiosa, the supposed glabrous form, according to Bolle, has pubescent branchlets.

The branches of the tree, which are very elegant, are used in Mexico for decorating churches at the times of religious festivals.

This species was discovered in 1799 by Humboldt, who saw it near the city of Mexico in two localities, at 4000 feet elevation between Masantla and Chilpantzingo, and near El Guardia at 8400 feet. It was introduced into cultivation in 1838 by Hartweg, who collected for the Horticultural Society of London.

Abies religiosa is tender and will not live, except in the warmer parts of these islands, close to the sea coast, where the temperature never falls much below freezing point. Trees planted long ago at Kew and Bayfordbury, do not now survive. Murray mentions‘ in 1876 specimens growing at Woodstock in Kilkenny, Highnam

1 Trans, Hort. Soc. iii, 123, 138 (1848).

2 I believe that this was the silver fir which clothes the lower slopes of the volcano of Popocatepetl, in Mexico, which I ascended to the limit of vegetation, about 13,000 feet, in March 1888, with my wife and Mr. F. D, Godman. The trees formed in some places dense forests at an elevation of 9000 to 10,000 feet, but though my recollection is that they grew to a great size, we took no measurements, being at the time engaged in collecting birds and insects. In the dry volcanic soil in which they grow we found abundantly Pinguzcula rosea, one of the most charming ornaments of our greenhouses ; and higher up lupins and pentstemons were the most ccnspicuous plants.—(H. J. E.)

3 Through Southern Mexico, 378 (1908).

1 Gard. Chron. v. 560 (1876).