I have lots of old horticultural books
in my basement library, and from time to time I'll bring one up to
re-read, or at least to peruse. It was at 2 o'clock in the morning
when my daughter came into the bedroom, in agony due to growth pains.
She whimpered as my wife massaged her legs, and I could tell that my
time in bed was over, so I opened The Pinetum by George Gordon
in the wee hours. The title page promised “A synopsis of all of the
coniferous plants at present known.” It was published in 1858 in
London, and includes “one hundred new kinds.”
Gordon dedicates his work to “The
Most Noble Algernon*, Duke of Northumberland,” who perhaps financed
the endeavor just to see his name in print. But I speculate. Gordon
makes sure that the reader is aware that Algernon is “A great
admirer of hardy trees, the cultivation of which in England has been
much influenced by the many fine specimens in his Grace's park and
pleasure grounds.” Gordon defines himself to the Duke as “his
obedient and humble servant.” It would be vain of me to suggest
that Seth and my other employees refer to me as such, as they
actually consider
me to be lucky that
they show up at
all.
*Admiral Algernon Percy (1792-1865)
was the 4th Duke of Northumberland. He
entered the Royal Navy at age 13 and served in the Napoleonic Wars,
and in 1853 he was made a Knight of the Garter, a dynastic order with
the motto of “Shame on him who thinks evil of it.” One legend has
it that the Countess of Salisbury was dancing at a court ball when
her garter slipped from her leg. While others laughed, the king
picked it up and returned it to her – a most chivalrous act –
hence the motto.
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| Sequoiadendron giganteum |
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| David Douglas |
In Gordon's introduction he gives
credit where it is due, informing his readers that “the most
gigantic specimens (of conifer) exist in California, and on the North
West Coast, “where the dimensions of some appear almost fabulous.”
He cites the example of the newly-discovered Wellingtonia
Lindley,
the “Mammoth Tree.” Synonyms of Wellingtonia include Sequoia
gigantea
Endlicher, Washingtonia gigantea
of the Americans,
Americanus giganteus,
Hort Amer and Taxodii sp.
Douglas.
I'm glad that Americanus didn't stick, and even though I always cheer
for America in the Olympics, the thought that the largest tree on
earth could be named for an Italian sailor who never set foot on
North America seems preposterous. But what's with Taxodii sp.
Douglas? Who is this Douglas? The mind leaps to David Douglas
(1799-18340, the renowned Scottish plantsman who worked in the
Pacific Northwest and California. But he never saw the “Giant
Sequoia,” the “Mammoth Tree,” for he died years before they
were discovered.
Sequoiadendron giganteum 'Greenpeace'
In 1833 the explorer J.K. Leonard
mentioned in his diary of an encounter with “big trees,” but
nothing was publicized, and later in 1850 John Wooster supposedly
carved his initials in the bark of a tree in the Calaveras grove, but
again this received no publicity. Finally in 1853 Augustus T. Dowd, a
hunter chasing a bear, stumbled upon the giant redwoods, but nobody
back at camp would believe him...at first. William Lobb, working in
California for the English Veitch Nursery, heard about the new
discovery and dashed immediately to collect seed, and he left for
home in 1853 without notifying any American botanists. They were
outraged that the world's largest tree would be named after an
English war hero who had never even seen the tree, but then the
Frenchman Joseph Decaisne published the name in 1854 of Sequoia
gigantea – which stuck for years. Of course local Indian tribes
had known of the trees for centuries, and they referred to them as
Wawona, which imitates the sound of the northern spotted owl,
their guardian of the forest.
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| Ginkgo biloba 'Autumn Gold' |
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| Ginkgo biloba |
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| Ginkgo biloba |
Previously I mentioned the Countess of
Salisbury, but she had nothing to do with the English botanist James
Edward Smith who referred to the Ginkgo as Salisburia
adiantifolia, the “Maidenhair Tree.” Smith was honoring R.A.
Salisbury, F.R.S.*, an eminent English botanist, though George Gordon
acknowledges in The Pinetum that a synonym of Salisburia is
Ginkgo biloba, Linnaeus. He also mentions Professor Bunge –
of Pinus bungeana fame – “who accompanied the Russian Mission to
Pekin [sic] and states that he saw an immense Ginkgo with a trunk
nearly 40' in circumference, and of prodigious height, but still in
perfect vigor.” Gordon also lists “varieties” of Ginkgo, with
laciniata, Carriere, macrophylla, Reynier and
variegata, Carriere. I have seen Ginkgo in the wild – dead
ones – when I visited the Ginkgo Petrified Forest State Park in
eastern Washington along the Columbia River. Petrified Ginkgo wood
was discovered in the 1930's, along with the remains of Nyssa,
Sequoia, Pseudotsuga, Picea, Magnolia, Acer, Hamamelis and more.
*F.R.S. stands for “False Ring
Syndrome,” as in when a person thinks his cell phone is ringing but
it isn't; or more likely, in Salisbury's case, a Friend of the Royal
Society.
Sciadopitys verticillata
Gordon continues with a review of
Sciadopitys, the Japanese “Umbrella Pine,” which of course is not
a true pine. He says that the name is derived from skidos for
“shade” and pitys for “pine,” but today the Greek
etymology suggests sciado for “shadow” and pitys
for “pine.” He describes it as “A large shrub or small tree,
found on the mountains in Japan, but even there very rare,” and
later “The Chinese call it 'Kin-Sung' and the Japanese
'Koja-Maki', and plant it in their gardens and around their
Sacred Temples, but it is by no means plentiful or abundant in Japan,
where, according to Dr. Siebold [Phillip von Siebold, who first
described it], there are several varieties.” Keep in mind that a
“variety” is what we would today call a “cultivar,” or
cultivated variant. There exists a large specimen at Junguji
Temple in Kyoto Prefecture that measured 27 m tall (88.5') with a
girth of 4.1 m (13.5') in 2000, and records show that it has been
worshipped locally since 1310. The largest Umbrella pine I have ever
seen is surprisingly in my home town of Forest Grove, Oregon, and it
is located only three blocks from where I grew up. Of course it meant
nothing to me as a youth, but later I was told about it by the late
Dr. Bump who had two progeny, good-sized, in his yard.
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| Taxodium mucronatum |
Gordon describes Taxodium distichum
Mexicanum, Gordon, and this Gordon is himself. Anyway,
synonyms exist as Taxodium pinnatum, Hort, virens, Knight,
Montezumae, Dunal and mucronatum, Hort, with the last
in acceptance today. It is commonly known as the “Montezuma
cypress,” and it is native to Mexico, the Rio Grande Valley in
southern Texas, and even into Guatemala. Ahuehuete is the
Spanish-Nahuatl word for the species, but the enormous specimen above
is known as “El Arbol del Tule” in Santa Maria del Tule in
Oaxaca, Mexico, with a circumference today of 137.8 feet. In Gordon's
time "a mucronatum at Chapultepec measured 99 feet in
circumference." Today it is only 37.7 feet. Read that again.
Gordon's tree is either shrinking, or the imagination was quite
expansive at the time of publication in 1858. In any case, the Tule
tree is the most stout of any tree in the world, and is supposed to
be at least 2,000 years old. Its existence was chronicled by the
Aztecs and the Spanish that founded the city of Oaxaca, and as you
would suppose, this tree was considered sacred, and according to
Mixtec myth the people originated from the cypress tree. Today it is
Mexico's national tree.*
*Apparently DNA tests confirm that
it is indeed one tree, but it could be comprised of multiple trunks
from one tree.
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| Pinus echinata cones |
I was curious about Gordon's listing of
Pinus mitis, Michaux, for I had never encountered such a
species. The puzzle was solved when I considered Gordon's synonyms:
Pinus variabilis, Pursh, lutea Loddiges, Roylei,
Lindley, intermedia, Fischer and echinata, Miller.
Ah, echinata! For some reason unknown to me, the mitis
specific name was eventually changed to echinata. Mitis
is a Latin word meaning mild, meek, gentle, placid or soothing,
while echinata means prickly, referring to the cones. I
have two P. echinata planted in our waterfall section, now about 34
years old. They were purchased as rooted cuttings (!) from the
now-defunct Mitsch Nursery of Oregon, a wonderful company for me when
my nursery was in its infancy. As I gaze at my trees, they don't
strike me as mild, meek etc. at all, unless the rather thin green
needles struck the namer (Miller) of the species as harmless. And
now, at about 40 feet tall, I would describe them as scrappy, but at
least the open canopy allows for perfect shade beneath. As for the
cones, I wouldn't describe them as "prickly," but rather
the opposite; and I don't know what the English botanist, Philip
Miller (1691-1771), had in mind when he named the species. Miller was
the chief gardener at the Chelsea Physic Garden, and he penned The
Gardener's Dictionary, and my copy (published in the 1700's) is
the oldest book in my library.
Pinus sabiniana
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| Pinus coulteri |
Pinus coulteri
Gordon's "Pinus macrocarpa,
Lindley, Dr. Coulter's pine" initially puzzled me, for he
lists synonyms of Pinus coulteri, Don, Pinus sabiniana
macrocarpa, Hort and Pinus Sabina Coulteri, Loudon. In
today's world we have Pinus sabiniana and Pinus coulteri, both with
huge cones, both from California, but two very different-looking
trees, so which species is Gordon describing? He reports that
"Leaves, in threes, stout, and rather stiff, from ten to twelve
inches long...," I was certain that the mysterious species was
coulteri. But in the same sentence he calls the needles "of a
glaucous grey color," which would be Pinus sabiniana, for I
would describe coulteri as less glaucous. Confused? What settled the
matter was the pine's native range, with Gordon's "found on the
mountains of Santa Lucia...within sight of the sea, at an elevation
of from 3,000 to 4,000 feet." I've been there – it is also
home to the "Bristlecone fir," Abies bracteata – so now I
know he was describing Pinus coulteri.
Pinus ponderosa
Hey, I hope you are having as much fun
trying to decipher Gordon's trees as I am. I know that "Pinus
ponderosa, Douglas, the Heavy-wooded Pine," is indeed the
species that David Douglas introduced into England in 1826. I don't
know if Douglas ever lifted a ponderosa log – he never worked in a
sawmill – and I always assumed that he named the species for its
magnificent size. Ponderosa is from Latin ponder
meaning "weight," then later to "weigh" or
"reflect on" and finally to Old French "to appraise"
or "judge the worth of." Gordon says that ponderosa "is
found abundantly on the North-west coast of America, and in
California, particularly on the banks of the Flathead and Spoken
[sic] Rivers, and the Kettle Falls of the Columbia..." That
account is confusing for a number of reasons. First, P. ponderosa is
not native to the North-west coast, but rather inland in the
drier regions. Also, the Spokane River is in Idaho and Washington
state, not California, and Kettle Falls is/was* in Washington state
near the Canadian border. One must forgive Gordon for any errors
about America's geography since he never set foot in America, and
most of his information in the book was from examining his Grace's
trees or the herbarium, or from second-hand reports.
*Alas, Kettle Falls – also sacred
to the Native Americans – was drowned with the building of the
Grand Coulee Dam, and now resides 90 feet underwater in the created
Lake Roosevelt.
Pseudotsuga menziesii
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| Abies douglasii |
Many conifers were once classified as
Pinus, including Pseudotsuga, and I have an antique drawing of
one from 1855, just after the name had been changed to Abies. In
Gordon's work, he called it Abies Douglasii,
Lindley, with
synonyms of Abies Californica,
Don, Picea Douglasii,
Link,
Pinus Douglasii,
Sabine, Pinus taxifolia,
Lambert and
Tsuga Douglasi (with one i),
Carriere. He refers to specimens
from Mexico to be Abies Douglasii taxifolia,
Loudon, and calls
it a "very distinct variety with much longer leaves..." The
Mexican version is now known as Pseudotsuga lindleyana and it extends
as far south as Oaxaca. It receives special protection due to decline
from
inbreeding depression, the reduced biological fitness in
a given population caused by the breeding of related individuals. The
Pseudotsuga at my nursery are P. menziesii var. menziesii, and I have
bragged about the two monsters at my home in previous blogs. I don't
think I've mentioned a remarkable sight that occurs on frosty
mornings, when two shadows from the winter sun are cast about three
football fields long. The shadows don't thaw, but the rest of the
field does.
Please don't think that I am being
mean-spirited to pick apart The Pinetum for its errors, but I
get a special kick out of his Picea bracteata, now classified as an
Abies. Gordon claims that it was discovered by Douglas – rong, as
Douglas never ever saw it – but also that it is native along the
Columbia River as well as on "the sea range of Santa Lucia in
Upper California." Actually I would call it central California,
as they occur about four/seventh's of the way south of the Oregon
border, but certainly never along the Columbia River.
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| Abies bracteata |
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| Abies bracteata 'Corbin' |
I used to subscribe to
American
Forests, and was intrigued in the spring 2004 issue (for $3.00)
of the National Register of Big Trees. I learned facts about the
"champion" trees, such as Persea americana's (Avocado tree)
185" circumference, 72' height and 59' spread. The champion Acer
macrophyllum – now dead – was 419" in circumference, 101' in
height and a spread of 90'. In the same issue was a story entitled
Empty Thrones, where 94 species were without a champion, and we
readers were encouraged to set out and find them. Surprisingly there
was no champion for Abies bracteata, but absolutely bizarre was that
it was listed as native to California, Idaho, Oregon and Colorado. I
sent a letter to the editor about the error, but received no
response, nor was there a correction in the next issue. I wrote
again, and referred to my previous letter, but still no response. The
error continued in the spring 2006 issue, and in disgust I dropped my
subscription. The late van Hoey Smith from the Arboretum Trompenburg
in Rotterdam considered any collection of trees without correct
identification as "invalid."
American Forests, then,
was also invalid.
2/17/06
"Write us!,"
you say in American Forests forum.
Well, I did write
to you about factual contents from a past issue. I was disappointed
to receive no response. What's up? A copy of that letter is enclosed.
11/28/05
I am a wholesale
nurseryman. Among the trees I grow is the "Bristlecone fir,"
Abies bracteata. I noticed in your spring 2004 issue (which lists the
national register of big trees) that Abies bracteata is a species in
search of a champion. And you list its range as being Colorado,
Idaho, Oregon and California. All modern reference books list it as
only coming from the Santa Lucia Mountains of California, where I
have observed it in the wild.
Does it really
also come from these other states, or is that a mistake? If so, where
in these states?
If it is a
mistake, then an interesting one. I have a copy of a conifer book by
the Englishman, Gordon: The Pinetum,
published in 1858. He describes Abies bracteata as "first
discovered by Douglas, on the mountains of the Columbia River, and
afterwards by Dr. Coulter and Hartweg, on the sea range of Santa
Lucia..." I always assumed the Oregon reference was an old
mistake for another species; but maybe not.
Any information
would be appreciated.
Regards,
Talon Buchholz
A 2nd edition to The
Pinetum was published in 1875 but I have not seen it. I think it
would be interesting to compare it with the original, to see if
corrections were made, and if additional information was provided. By
the way, some of you would find my library to be fascinating, and any
valid individual is invited to visit, with priority going to
attractive, witty females. But you can't borrow anything; I've
learned that rule the hard way.
