Tsuga dumosa Eich.

Horticultural & Botanical History

Introduced to Britain in 1838.  [RHSD].  ‘The first discoverer of this tree was Captain Webb, to whom we are indebted for much important and valuable information concerning the geography and natural history of the Himalaya and the lofty mountains contiguous to it, and to whom I have dedicated a noble species of pine with large dark-purple cones, from which the Tartars prepare a sort of indigo.  He found it on the southern confines of Bhote (Butan), where it forms a spreading beautiful tree, seventy to eighty feet high, throwing out branches at fifteen or twenty feet, with leaves so extremely deciduous that the slightest shake of the branch is sufficient to detach them.  The natives call the tree Tangshing.  They do not use the wood, as it is liable to warp.  I have found the tree at Bunipa in Nipal, attaining a very large size: and it also grows at Gossain Than, where it is called Changathasi Dhup (the last word meaning Fir). It comes near to Pinus canadensis, but differs in the larger obtuse cones, and the partially serrulated leaves, which are covered underneath with milk-white mealiness.  I sent abundance of specimens home to the museum at the India House in 1824, marked Pinus decidua, under which name duplicates were distributed in the following year by order of the Hon. Company.  I adopted that name in conformity with Captain Webb’s remark, which I had verified repeatedly, by observing that not a single leaf would remain attached after a branch had been put between paper, even for a single day only; but as it is objectionable, I now call the species after my inestimable friend Mr Brown.’  [Wallich pl.247/1832].

History at Camden Park

Listed in the 1857 catalogue only [C.2/1857].

Notes