The source of this uncorrected OCR text may be viewed in the DjVu format at: http://fax.libs.uga.edu/QK488xE4/6tgbi or http://purl.galileo.usg.edu/ugafax/QK488xE4/6tgbi Great Britain Ireland BY Henry John Elwes, F.R.S. AND Augustine Henry, M.A. Edinburgh : Privately Printed THE TREES OF GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND 4» * « y u t H' * *. i i • l t of Great Britain Ireland BY Henry John Elwes, F.R.S. AND Augustine Henry, M.A. VOLUMF VI Edinburgh: Privately Printed MCMXII I Y r À CONTENTS LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS . . PICEA ....... PICEA EXCELSA, COMMON SPRUCE .... PICEA OBOVATA, SIBERIAN SPRUCE . PICEA ORIENTALIS, CAUCASIAN SPRUCE PICEA SCHRENKIANA, SCHRENK'S SPRUCE PICEA SMITHIANA, WESTERN HIMALAYAN OR MORINDA SPRUCE PICEA GLEHNII ...... PICEA POLITA ...... PICEA BICOLOR . . PICEA MAXIMOVVICZII ..... PICEA NIGRA, BLACK SPRUCE .... PICEA RUBRA, RED SPRUCE .... PICEA ALBA, WHITE SPRUCE .... PlCEA ALBERTIANA, ALBERTA WHITE SPRUCE PICEA ENGELMANNI, ENGELMANN'S SPRUCE PICEA PUNGENS, COLORADO SPRUCE PICEA SPINULOSA, SIKKIM SPRUCE .... JUNIPERUS ....... JUNIPERUS COMMUNIS, COMMON JUNIPER JUNIPERUS RIGIDA ...... JUNIPERUS OXYCEDRUS .... JUNIPERUS MACROCARPA ..... JUNIPERUS BREVIFOLIA ..... JUNIPERUS CEDRUS . . ... JUNIPERUS FORMOSANA ..... JUNIPERUS DRUPACEA ..... JUNIPERUS RECURVA ..... JUNIPERUS SQUAMATA ..... JUNIPERUS WALLICHIANA ..... JUNIPERUS PHŒNICEA ..... JUNIPERUS FLACCIDA ..... iii VI 1 1335 1337 1359 1362 1364 1366 1369 1370 1372 1374 1375 1377 1380 1385 1387 1389 1392 1400 1408 1409 1412 1413 1414 1417 1419 1420 1423 1424 1426 VI The Trees of Great Britain and Ireland MAGNOLIA HYPOLEUCA . ... MAGNOLIA Kouus ...... MAGNOLIA SALICIFOLIA ..... MAGNOLIA CONSPICUA . ... MAGNOLIA DENUDATA ..... MAGNOLIA PARVIFLORA ... MAGNOLIA WATSONI ..... MAGNOLIA STELLATA ... HALESIA ....... HALESIA DIPTERA .... HALESIA CAROLINA, SNOWDROP TREE MORUS ....... MORUS NIGRA, BLACK MULBERRY . MORUS RUBRA, RED MULBERRY .... MORUS ALBA, WHITE MULBERRY .... EUCALYPTUS ...... EUCALYPTUS CORDATA, TASMANIAN HEART-LEAVED GUM EUCALYPTUS PULVERULENTA, AUSTRALIAN HEART-LEAVED GUM EUCALYPTUS GLOBULUS, BLUE GUM .... EUCALYPTUS PAUCIFLORA, WEEPING GUM EUCALYPTUS VIMINALIS, MANNA GUM EUCALYPTUS COCCIFERA, MOUNTAIN PEPPERMINT EUCALYPTUS GUNNII, CIDER GUM .... EUCALYPTUS WHITTINGEHAMENSIS, WHITTINGEHAME GUM EUCALYPTUS ACERVULA, SWAMP GUM EUCALYPTUS VERNICOSA, DWARF GUM EUCALYPTUS MUELLERI, MUELLER'S RED GUM EUCALYPTUS URNIGERA, URN-BEARING GUM . PAGE 1592 1594 1595 1596 1597 1598 1598 '599 1600 1601 1602 1605 1606 1608 1609 1612 1620 1622 1623 1631 '635 1638 1642 1646 1647 1649 ILLUSTRATIONS Common Spruce in Massachusetts ..... Common Spruce at Studley ...... Spruce Avenue at Oakley Park ..... Common Spruce at Gwydyr Castle ..... Spruce at Kilworth, Ireland ...... Western Himalayan Spruce at Melbury .... Black Spruce at Coles borne ... . . Sikkim Spruce at Castlewellan Common Juniper at Colesborne ..... Juniperus recurva at Castlewellan . ... Catalpa at Ham Manor . . . Robinia at Frogmore . . ... Robinia at The Mote, Maidstone ..... Trunk of Robinia in America ; Evergreen Magnolia in North Carolina Wild Cherry in Savernake Forest ..... Cherry at George's Green, Slough ..... Pear at Lassington, Gloucester ..... Pear at Stockton, Worcester . . ... Magnolia at West Dean Park ..... Blue Gum at Torquay . . . . Blue Gum at Penmere ...... Eucalyptus coccifera at Povvderham ..... Eucalyptus Gunnii at Brightlingsea ..... Eucalyptus Whittingehamensis at Whittingehame Eucalyptus Muelleri at Derreen ..... Eucalyptus ; leaves and fruits .... Walnut at Cam-yr-AIyn Park .... Oriental Plane at Weston Park Scots Pine in Glen Maillie ..... Larch at Poltalloch ... Alpine Laburnum at Countesswells, Aberdeen Spruce Plantation at Rhindbuckie Hill, Durris PLATE No. 34° 341 342 343 344 345 346 347 348 349 35° 351 352 353 354 355 356 357 358 359 360 361 362 363 364 365 366 367 368 369 370 371 vu NOTICE TO SUBSCRIBERS THE favourable manner in which the Notice to Subscribers issued with the Fifth Volume of this work ( The Trees of Great Britain and Ireland) was received, leads us to hope for their approval of the course we are now about to adopt, after consultation with some of our best supporters. In consequence of the great additions to our knowledge, and the extreme difficulty of some of the genera described, the last part of the work has increased to over 500 pages, which, if published in one volume, would far exceed in size and cost those hitherto published. We have therefore decided to complete the work in two volumes. Vol. VII. will be issued, together with a general Index to the whole work, before the end of the year. In accordance with what was indicated in our last Notice to Subscribers the cost of these two volumes and the Index will be Five Guineas. H. J. ELWES. A. HENRY. IX PICEA THE characters of the Genus Picea and of the two sections into which it is divided have been given in Vol. I. pp. 75-76, with a description of the species belonging to the section Otnorica. At that time the Sikkim spruce (P. spinulosa), one of this section, was imperfectly known, and a full account of it is now given at the end of this article. See p. 1392. In the section Eu-picea, the leaves are quadrangular or rhombic in section, and bear stomatic lines on all their four sides. About fifteen species of quadrangular- leaved spruces are known,1 which may be readily distinguished by the following key, based on the characters of the branchlets, buds, and leaves. KEY TO SECTION EU-PICEA I. Branchlets quite glabroits. * Leaves on lateral branches radially arranged, spreading uniformly on all sides. 1. Picea Smithiana, Boissier. Western Himalayas. See p. 1366. Branchlets pendulous, grey. Buds large, resinous, pointed. Leaves slenden about i^ in. long. 2. Picea Maximowiczii, Regel. Japan. See p. 1374. Branchlets not pendulous, reddish brown. Buds small, resinous. Leaves, f to \ in. long. ** Leaves on lateral branches in an imperfect radial arrangement, not pectinate in two sets on the lower side of tlie branchlets, which are not pendulous. 3. Picea Schrenkiana, Fischer and Meyer. Central Asia, in the Alatau and Thianshan ranges. See p. 1364. Branchlets ashy grey. Terminal buds subglobose, girt with a ring of keeled pointed pubescent ciliate scales. Leaves rigid, sharp-pointed, f to \\ in. long. 4. Picea pungens, Engelmann. Wyoming, Colorado, Utah, New Mexico. See p. 1389- Branchlets at first glaucous, becoming reddish brown. Buds with the tips of their upper scales usually loose and reflexed. Leaves stout, rigid, with a hard sharp-pointed apex, f to ij in. long. 1 Not including the spruces of China, of which two or three species introduced by Wilson are in cultivation at Coombe Wood, but are too young to describe. vi 1335 « 1336 The Trees of Great Britain and Ireland 5. Picea polita, Carrière. Japan. See p. 1370. Branchlets yellow. Buds shining reddish brown, with closely imbricated scales. Leaves rigid, stout, curved, ending in a spine-like point. *** Leaves on lateral branches, imbricated on the ^lpper side of the branchlet; those below, pectinate and spreading laterally in two sets. 6. Picea alba, Link. North America. See p. 1380. Branchlets greyish or pale brown, usually glaucous. Buds with glabrous non- ciliate bifid scales. Leaves disagreeable in odour when bruised, about \ in. long. 7. Picea bicolor, Mayr. Japan. See p. 1372. Branchlets yellow, glabrous on lateral branches, pubescent in the furrows on leading shoots. Buds with scarious scales. Leaves, with two conspicuous white stomatic bands, each of five to six lines, on the two dorsal sides, and two bands of two lines on the two ventral sides. II. Branchlets^ variable, quite glabrous or with slight scattered pubescence. 8. Picea excelsa, Link. Europe. See p. 1337. Branchlets reddish, usually quite glabrous, or with slight pubescence often confined to the grooves between the pulvini. Terminal buds conical, acute, without resin, girt with a ring of keeled pubescent ciliate pointed scales. Leaves, usually f to i in. long, with two to three stomatic lines on each of the four sides. 9. Picea albertiana, Stewardson Brown. Alberta, British Columbia, Montana, Wyoming. See p. 1385. Branchlets greyish yellow, either glabrous or with minute pubescence usually confined to the pegs from which the leaves arise. Buds slightly resinous with rounded entire scales. Leaves, in an imperfect radial arrangement on the lateral branches, \ to i in. long. III. Branchlets always plainly pubescent. Leaves arranged on lateral branches, as in P. excelsa. * Terminal buds with a ring of conspicuous long subulate scales. ID. Picea nigra, Link. North America. See p. 1375. Branchlets covered with dense short glandular pubescence. Leaves bluish or glaucous green, about \ in. long. u. Picea rubra, Link. North America. Seep. 1377. Branchlets, as in P. nigra. Leaves yellowish green or dark green, not glaucous, ^ to f in. long. 12. Picea Gleknii, Masters. Saghalien, Yezo. See p. 1369. Branchlets reddish, with short non-glandular pubescence, confined to the furrows between the pulvini. Leaves slender, ^ to \ in. long. 1 Cf. P. bicolor, No. 7, which has pubescent leading shoots and glabrous lateral branches. Picea ** Terminal buds without long stibulate scales. 13. Picea orientalis, Carrière. Asia Minor, Caucasus. Seep. 1362. Branchlets slender, pale brown, covered with dense short non-glandular pubescence. Leaves, \ to f in. long, shining dark green, blunt and bevelled at the tip. 14. Picea Engelmanni, Engelmann. Western North America. Seep. 1387. Branchlets greyish yellow, with a sparse minute glandular pubescence. Leaves disagreeable in odour when bruised, bluish green, ^ to I in. long. 15. Picea obovata, Ledebour. Northern Scandinavia, Russia, Siberia; sporadic at high altitudes in the mountains of Central Europe. See p. 1359. Branchlets reddish brown, covered with a dense minute non - glandular pubescence. Leaves, if to % in. long, short-pointed, with three to four stomatic lines on each side. PICEA EXCELS A, COMMON SPRUCE Picea excelsa, Link, in Linnaa, xv. 517 (1841); Willkomm, Forstl. Flora, 67 (1887); Mathieu. Flore Forestière, 540 (1897); Ascherson and Graebner, Syn. Mittekurop. Flora, i. 196 (1897) ; Schröter, in Vierteljahrs. Naturf. Ges. Ziirich, xliii. 125-252 (1898); Kent, Veitch's Man.' Conif. 432 (1900); Kirchner, Loew and Schröter, Lebcngesch. Blutenpfl. Mitteleuropas, 99 (1904); Clinton-Baker, Illust. Conif. ii. 38 (1909). Picea rubra, Dietrich,1 Fl. Berol. 795(182 4). Picea vulgaris, Link, in Abhand. Akad. Berlin, 1827, p. 180 (1830). Picea Abies, Karsten, Pharm. Med. Bot. 324 (1881). Pinus Abies, Linnseus, Sp. PI. 1002 (1753). Pinus Picea, Du Roi, Obs. Bot. 37 (1771) (not Linnseus). Pinus excelsa, Lamarck, Fl. Franc, ii. 202 (1778). Abies Picea, Miller, Diet., 8th ed., No. 3 (1768). Abies excelsa, De Candolle, in Lamarck, Fl. Franc, iii. 275 (1805); Loudon, Arb. et Frtit. Brtt. iv. 2293 (1838). Abies carpatica, Lawson, Pinet. Brit. ii. 137, t. 20 (1867). A tree, often attaining in Britain 120 to 140 ft. in height and 10 to 12 ft. in girth, in central Europe attaining 200 ft. high and 15 to 20 ft. in girth. Bark on young stems brownish, thin, smooth ; on older trees thick, and scaling off on the surface in thin small scales. Young branchlets, reddish or yellowish brown, glabrous or with a minute scattered non-glandular pubescence, often confined to the furrows between the pulvini. Buds conical, acute, reddish brown, without resin, with rounded scarious scales ; terminal bud girt with a few acuminate keeled pubescent ciliate scales. Leaves on erect shoots radially spreading, more or less appressed to the twigs with their tips directed upwards : on lateral branches, pectinate below, the lower side of the twig being laid bare, most of the leaves being directed forwards and outwards ; while on the upper side of the twig, the leaves in the middle line are more or less 1 Dietrich's name and description apply to the common European spruce, and not to the American red spruce, as is often erroneously supposed. 1338 The Trees of Great Britain and Ireland appressed, with their tips directed forwards and slightly upwards. Leaves, variable in size, usually £ to f in., occasionally i in. long, rigid, straight or curved, ending in a short callous point, rhombic in section, with two or three stomatic lines on each of the four sides ; resin-canals variable, occasionally absent or only one present, usually two, one at each end of the transverse axis of the rhomb, close to the epidermis. Staminate flowers solitary in the axils of the leaves of the branchlets of the preceding year, rarely terminal on lateral branchlets, ovoid, about an inch long ; stamens numerous, spirally arranged, reddish, each with two pollen-sacs directed downwards and dehiscing longitudinally, and a prominent denticulate connective ; pollen grains, each with two air-vesicles. Pistillate flowers, appearing in summer as brown buds at the tips of the branchlets of the current year, developing in the following spring, about 2 in. long ; sessile, erect, cylindrical, purplish red ; scales carmine red, oval, with a truncate erose apex ; bracts about half the length of the scales, not increasing in size after the time of flowering, ovate - lanceolate, denticulate, with a long acuminate apex. After fertilisation the young cones leave the erect position, and gradually become pendulous, their scales becoming closely imbricated, and in the usual form of the species green in colour. Cones ripe in October, when they turn brownish ; cylindrical, pendulous, variable in size, about 4 to 6 in. in length ; usually opening in spring and letting the seeds escape when a dry east wind is blowing ; falling from the tree in the subsequent summer or autumn ; scales thin and flexible, rhombic, with a truncate emarginate or dentate apex, variable in size, f to f in. wide, i to i^ in. long, pale brown and glabrous on the exposed part, dark reddish brown and minutely pubescent on the concealed part ; bract about J in. long, lanceolate, denticulate at the acute or acuminate apex. Seed about J in. long, dark dull brown ; seed with wing about f in. long ; wing broadest near the obliquely rounded denticulate apex. Seedlitig.—Seeds sown in spring germinate in four or five weeks, the radicle first making its way out of the seed coats, and the caulicle carrying up the cotyledons, which are at first enveloped as with a cap by the albumen of the seed. The cap is soon cast off, and the cotyledons spread in a whorl. The cotyledons are six to ten in number, united at their base by a sheath, about |- in. long, triangular in section, with the upper edge faintly serrate, without resin-canals, stomatic on the two inner surfaces, deciduous at the end of the second year. The plant at the end of the first year is about 2 to 3 in. high, the young stem bearing, in addition to the whorl of cotyledons, spirally arranged primary needles, which are rhomboiclal in section, serrulate on the four angles, with two resin-canals, and inserted on raised pulvini. Branching occurs in the third or fourth year, when the leaves assume their adult form, being entire and not serrulate. No tap root is formed, the root dividing into numerous branches spreading in all directions. Throughout the life of the tree the absence of the tap root, seen in the seedling, persists ; and the roots of the spruce are usually spreading and do not penetrate the soil to any great depth. The spruce is normally monoecious, but instances have been known of Picea individuals which always bear staminate flowers ; and hermaphrodite flowers have been observed. The flowers are pollinated by the wind, the pollen being carried to an immense distance ; as far as'' eight miles in a case which was noticed near Munich. In the vicinity of spruce forests the pollen often descends in enormous quantity, covering the ground and the surface of lakes and rivers with yellow patches. I. The following variations occur in the form of the scales of the cone :— 1. Var. eurofiœa, Schroter, op. cit. 142 (1898). Var. montana, Ascherson and Graebner, op. cit. 198 (1897). Picea vttlgaris, Link, var. europœa, Teplouchoff, in Bull. Soc. Nat. Mosc., xli. pt. ii. 249 (1869). Cone-scales rhombic, gradually narrowing in the upper third to a truncate, slightly inflexed, emarginate or denticulate apex. This is the common form of P. excelsa, widely distributed throughout central Europe, and also occurring in southern Sweden. In the Alps it is rarely found over 5000 feet elevation. 2. Var. acuminata, Beck, in Ann. Nat. Hofm. Wien, ii. 39 (1887). Cone-scales, contracted suddenly into a long bifid recurved undulate apex. This variety is of rarer occurrence in central Europe than the preceding ; but is found in the Jura1 and the Alps, and is said to be common in eastern Prussia and in southern Sweden. 3. Var. triloba, Ascherson and Graebner, op. cit. 199 (1897). Scales of the cone trilobed at the apex. This is a much less common varia tion, which has been noticed in a few trees growing at Blankenburg2 in the Harz Mountains, at Soglio8 to the north of Lake Como, and in Moravia.4 II. There appear to be two races of the common spruce in the continental forests, which are mainly distinguishable by the colour assumed by the unripe cones in August. 4. Var. chlorocarpa, Purkyne, in Allg. Forst, ^l. Jagdzeit, lui. i (1877). Cones remaining green in August. 5. Var. erythrocarpa, Purkyne, loc. cit. Cones becoming dark violet in August. Purkyne considered that important differences in the growth of the tree, in the character of the wood, in the staminate and pistillate flowers, and in the soil occupied by each form, were correlated with the differences in the colour of the cones ; but Schroter considers that these are not established, and suggests further investigation. III. The spruce varies much in habit in the wild state, and several remarkable sports have been described. 6. Var. viminalis, Caspary, in Sehr. Phys. Oekon. Ges. Königsberg, xiv. 126 \ Finns viminalis, Sparrman, ex Alstroemer, in Vet. Ac. Handl. Stockh. xxxviii. 310 (1777). Pinus hybrida, Liljeblad, in Svensk FÎ. (1792). 1 Cf. Aubert, Flore de la Vallée âejoiix, 345 (1900). ., -—-. JTJ \-:/~~v A. Braun, in l'erh. Bot. Verein Prov. Brandenburg, xviii. Sitzb. 13 (1876). 3 Ascherson and Graebner, ex Schroter, pp. cit. 204, fig. 31 (1898). 4 Wilhelm, in Oesterr. Forstzeit. i8S8, p. 169. 134° The Trees of Great Britain and Ireland Branches in remote almost horizontal whorls, with very long and slender branchlets (often 10 ft., occasionally 20 ft. long) without or with very few lateral branchlets. Leaves radially spreading. This remarkable form of the weeping spruce was considered by Linnaeus J to be a hybrid between the spruce and Pinus sylvestris. It has been observed in about twenty places in Sweden, where it is vulgarly called Tysk gran or German spruce, in about the same number of localities in Norway, and in isolated cases in Livland, East Prussia, Poland, Thuringia, Tyrol, Styria, Carinthia, Carniola, and Switzerland.2 When sown, the peculiar habit is occasionally reproduced.3 7. Var. pendula, Jacques and Hérincq, Man. Gén. Plantes, iv. 340, 341 A remarkable form of the weeping spruce, narrow and columnar in habit, with pendulous branches almost appressed to the stem. Conwentz4 has described this form, known to him as a single tree8 in the Stellin forest near Elbing in West Prussia, another6 at Jegothen, near Heilsberg in East Prussia, and two others7 near Schierke in the Harz Mountains. Kraemer8 found another in a forest near Kreut in Bavaria. Solitary examples have also been found in Switzerland,9 in northern Hungary,10 and in the Bukowina.11 The seed of the weeping spruce near Jegothen, when sown by Conwentz,4 gave twelve trees, only one of which showed a tendency to the weeping habit. A similar tree with longer leaves, lighter in colour than the typical form, was discovered12 about the year 1860 by Mr. R. Smith Carrington in a plantation near Kinlet Hall, Shropshire, which was propagated by R. Smith and Company, Worcester, who sold it under the name Abies excelsa inverta™ Gordon, Pinet. Suppl. 4 (1862), a name scarcely worth keeping distinct from van pendula, Jacques and Hérincq, which antedated it a few years. A fine example, about 30 ft. high, was growing14 in 1897 at Ide Hill, Sevenoaks, Kent; and a good specimen exists at Murthly Castle. There is also a good example15 at Barbier's nursery, Orleans. Other kinds of weeping spruce, probably including Abies excelsa pendula, Loudon, a form introduced by Booth, are irregular in habit and much more spread ing. A very fine example occurs at Durris. 1 Linnœus refers to it as Abies procera •viminalis in Fl. Swc. 288 (1745). 2 Cf. Schröter, op. cit. 151, who draws attention to the fact that P. Breweriana, of the Siskiyou Mountains, has this habit as a constant specific character. 3 Cf. Wilhelm, in Verh. K. K. Zool. Bot. Ges. Wien, xxxvii. (1887). 4 Beob. Seltene Waldbäume W. Preussen, 135 (1895). 6 Figured in Gartenflora, 1899, p. 618, fig. 86; and by Conwentz, op. cit. 141, figs. 12, 13. 0 Figured by Conwentz, op. cit. 147, fig. 14. 7 Figured in Gartenflora, 1901, p. 315, figs. 48, 49 ; and by Conwentz, op. cit. 150, 152, figs. 15, 16. 8 In Flora, 1841, p. 700. 8 Schröter, op. cit. 156 (1898). 10 Schilberszky, in Kerteszeti Lapok, vii. (1892), describes a weeping spruce near Leutschau. 11 Cf. Oesterr. Forst, u. Jagdzeit. 1897, p. 356. 12 Nicholson, in Woods and Forests, 1884, p. 691 ; and The Garden, xxv. 229 (1884). 13 Picea excelsa inversa, Beissner, Nadelholzkunde, 361 (1891). 14 Gard. Chron. xxii. 368, fig. 109 (1897). Cf. also Gard. Chron. xxix. 263, fig. 98 (1901). V> Figured in Gartenflora, 1899, p. 617, fig. 87; and by Conwentz, op. cit. 163, fig. 17. Picea The "Cornish fir" which was mentioned by Hayes1 as growing in 1794 at Avondale in Co. Wicklow, was pendulous in habit and bore large cones, sometimes nearly a foot in length. The remarkable pendulous spruce2 at Shelsley Walsh, in the Teme Valley in Worcestershire, bears cones 9 in. in length, and appears to be identical with Hayes' variety. 8. Var. columnaris, Carrière, Conif. 248 (1855). Narrowly columnar in habit, with short horizontal branches, clothed with dense short branchlets and foliage. This form, which has been known a long time in cultivation, exists in the wild state in Switzerland, where six trees are known by Schröter in the five localities of Stanserhorn, Stockhorn, la Brévine, Chavannes, and la Berboleuse, all at high altitudes between 4000 and 5800 ft. The columnar spruces is to be carefully distinguished from the narrow spruce, known as the spitzfichte? in which the habit does not result as a sport, but is due to a severe climate, which checks the growth of the branches. The spitzßchte is similar to the columnar spruce in form, being narrowly cylindrical, but the stem is sparingly clad with short branches, wide apart, and forming a thin crown of foliage. The spitzfichte is never seen at low levels in the Alps and Jura, but occurs near the timber line, often forming small groves in exposed situations. This climatic form is much more common in P. obovata in Lapland, Finland, and northern Scandinavia. 9. \ix.pyramidata, Carrière, 247 (1855). Var. stricte, Schröter, op. cit. 158 (1898). Branches ascending at a narrow angle, forming a nearly fastigiate tree. Trees of this kind are occasionally seen in the forests of central Europe, and are rarely found in the seed bed in nurseries. ID. Var. strigosa, Christ, in Garden and Forest, ix. 252 (1896). A form with numerous slender horizontal branchlets, spreading from all sides of the branches, giving the tree the habit of the common larch. This variety occurs in one locality in the canton of St. Gall in Switzerland. il. Var. eremita, Carrière, in Jacques and Hérincq, Man. Gén. Plantes, iv. 341 (1857). A tree of slender pyramidal habit with numerous branches, directed upwards at a small angle with the stem, short stout branchlets, large buds, and distant short thick sharp-pointed needles. Var. Remonti, said by Kent5 to be a dwarf modification of this, is described by Masters6 as of dense compact pyramidal habit, recalling that of Cupressus Lawsoniana, var. erecta viridis. 1 Planting, 165 (1794). It is first mentioned apparently in London Catalogue of Trees (1730), as the long-coned Cornish fir, said to have heen "brought from America some years previously and planted in Devon and Cornwall." 2 Erroneously referred to P. Smithiana (as P. Morinda) in Card. Chron. 1869, p. 713, and xix. 132 (1896). 3 Dr. Christ, iu Garden and Forest, ix. 252 (1896), uses the term columnar spruce for the spitzfichte, which is not strictly accurate. 4 First named and described by Berg, in Jahrbuch K. Sachs. Akad. Forst. Tharand. xiii. 83 (1859). « Veitch's Man. Conif. 433 (1900). e In Card. Chron. vii. 578 (1890). 134* The Trees of Great Britain and Ireland 12. Var. virgata, Caspary, op. cit. xiv. 125 (1873). Abies excelsa, De Candolle, var. virgata, Jacques, in Anti. Soc. Hort. Paris, xliv. 653 (1853). Alles excelsa Cratistonii, Knight and Perry, Syn. Conif. 36 (1850). Picea excelsa, Link, var. denudata, Carrière, in Rev. Hort. iii. 102, fig. 7 (1854). Branches very few and usually not in whorls, elongated, straight or curved, with very few or without branchlets. Leaves radially arranged, either longer or shorter than in the common spruce, persistent ten or twelve years. This variety,1 which is known as the snake spruce, owes its peculiarities to the arrest of nearly all the buds, which do not develop. Most of the examples recorded are young trees, but one2 forty years old at Buttes, near Neuveville in the Swiss Jura, was 40 ft. high in 1898. The snake spruce is not uncommon in Norway, where Schübeler found it in seventeen localities between lat. 59^° and 6i^° ; and also occurs here and there in Sweden between lat. 58° and 63°. Isolated examples are reported from Finland, Livland, and Courland which are probably P. obovata ; and others occur in different parts of Germany. It is common in Bohemia; and one example is known in Moravia. Schröter mentions seventeen trees growing in ten localities in Switzerland. Carrière knew only one example, growing in Cochet's nursery at Suynes, near Brie-Comte-Robert, in Seine-et-Marne. Varieties intermediate between the snake spruce and vars. pendula, monstrosa, and viminalis also occur, but are very rare. 13. Var. monstrosa, Schröter, op. cit. 170 (1898). (Not Carrière.3) Abies excelsa, De Candolle, var. monstrosa, Loudon, Arb. et Fritt. Brit. iv. 2295 (1838). Abies aclada, Salvi, in Flora, 1844, p. 519. Picea excelsa, Link, var. motiocaulis, Nördlinger, ex Willkomm, Forstl. Flora, 76 (1887). This variety, which never develops any lateral branches, has a single thickened stem, bearing leaves near the apex, persistent for many years, and about i^ in. in length. This variety was first described by Loudon, who mentions a single specimen growing in the Chiswick garden, twelve years planted, and about 3 ft. in height. A specimen at High Canons, Hertford, produced cones of the ordinary form in4 1907. Salvi found in 1842 four specimens, growing wild in the Euganean Hills, west of Padua. One of these which was transplanted to Isola Bella in Lake Maggiore, where I saw it in 1909, is attached to a bamboo, and trained up the wall of the château ; it measures about 30 ft. in height and is nearly as thick (i-i£ inch) at the top as at the bottom, bearing leaves with very sharp points only on the upper two feet of the stem. Schröter records another specimen at Stockach in Baden, another in Bohemia, and another at Ansbach in Bavaria. A form of this variety is recorded 1 An analogous form of the common silver fir, Abiespectinata, var. virgata, Caspary, in Bot. Zeit. 778, t. ix. (1882), occurs ; but only four examples are known—two in Alsace, one in the Bohemian forest, and another in the Swiss Jura near Neuveville. The latter is described and figured by Schröter, op. cit. 168, fig. 15 (1898). Cf. vol. iv. p. 722. 2 The oldest known to Schröter was one near Dorpat, in Livland, said by Berg, in Schrf. Natutf. Ges. Univ. Dorpat, ii. t. 2 (1887), to be sixty years old. 3 Carrière, Canif. 248 (1855), wrongly applied the name monstrosa to var. virgata, Caspary. 4 According to Card. Chron. xxv. 146 (1886), var. monstrosa at Lucombe, Pince and Co.'s Nursery, Exeter, produced cones in 1886 which were similar to those of the ordinary spruce. Picea from Silesia and Thuringia, which bears a few undivided branches at the base, the upper part being without branches. 14. Var. globosa, Berg, in Schrift. Nattirf. Ges. Univ. Dorpat, ii. 19, 20 (1887). In this variety, normal growth is replaced by numerous close branches, irregularly dividing into a great number of branchlets, similar to a witches' broom, and forming either a globose bush without any leader, or a conical bush with a leader arising out of a globose base. I saw a remarkable example of the globose spruce in 1909 at the Forestry Experimental Station, Zurich. Seedlings had been raised, one quarter of which had reverted to the habit of the ordinary spruce, the others being very various in appearance and intermediate between the parent form and the normal habit of the species.1 In the true dwarf forms2 of the spruce, the branching is regular, but the growth of the shoots is very small, and the needles are very short. The most important are :— 15. Var. Clanbrassiliana, Carrière, in Jacques and Hérincq, Man. Gén. Plantes, iv. 341 (1857). Abies excelsa, De Candolle, var. Clanbrassiliana, Loudon, Arb. et. Frut. Brit. iv. 2294 (1838). A compact low dense globose bush, seldom higher than 5 or 6 ft. ; branches and branchlets, much shortened ; leaves about £ to \ in. long ; buds very red in colour. This is supposed to have been found on the Moira estate, near Belfast, about the end of the eighteenth century, when it was introduced into England by Lord Clan- brassil. This dwarf form has been found growing wild in Thuringia, and near Stock holm, and in Jemtland in Sweden. It is always sterile, and is propagated by cuttings. Elwes found at Tullymore Park, Co. Down, a large bush of this form measuring ID ft. high and 28 ft. in circumference, which he was informed was either the original or a part of it, and was supposed to be about one hundred and fifty years old. A specimen at Aldenham has reverted to the normal type, and is now growing rapidly into an erect tree. 16. Var. tabulœformis, Carrière, Product, et Fixât. Variétés, 52 (1865), Conif. 333 (1867). A prostrate form, with slender branchlets spreading horizontally over the ground. This is said by Carrière to have been taken, probably as a cutting, from a witches' broom, growing on an ordinary spruce in the Trianon. Torssander3 found a similar plant in Södermanland in Sweden, thirty years old, and only 20 in. high. 17. Other dwarf forms have been named, as vars. pumila*pygmœa? Gregoryana? Maxwelli? etc. 1 Cf. Engler, in Mitt. Schweiz. F'orst. Versuch, viii. pt. il 117, figs. 8, 9 (1904). 2 See under Witches' Brooms, p. 1345. 3 In SSdermanland Botan. Notiser, 1897, p. 169. 4 Beissner, Nadelhohkunde, 365 (1891). 6 Loudon, op. cit. 2295 O^S8)- 6 Said by Gordon, Pinettim, 9 (1875) to have been raised in the Cirencester Nursery. 7 Originated as a seedling in Messrs. Maxwell's nursery, Geneva, New York. Cf. Woods and Forests, 1884, p. 502, and Rehder, in Bailey, Cycl. Amer. Hort, üi. 1333, fig. 1798 (1901), VI C 1344 The Trees of Great Britain and Ireland IV. Several varieties are known in which the leaves are coloured :— 18. Var. aurea, Carrière, Conif. 246 (1855). Leaves yellowish white, shining. The golden spruce has been found wild in Carinthia. 19. Vzr.ßnedonensis, Gordon, Pinet. Supp. 4 (1862). Leaves pale yellow at first, changing to a bronze colour, and ultimately be coming green.1 This originated at Finedon Hall, Northamptonshire, where it came up accidentally in a bed of common spruce. It often loses its colour in cultivation, and at Colesborne has entirely reverted to the normal green. Var. mutabilisz has the young shoots creamy yellow in colour, changing to green by the end of the season. Mr. Bean3 saw in Hesse's nursery, Weener, Hanover, a very beautiful variety, with creamy white young shoots, which is called var. argenteo-spica. 20. Var. variegata. Carrière, Conif. 246(1855). Leaves variegated with pale yellow. A variegated form is mentioned by Loudon ; and Wittrock4 found a tree with leaves variegated white at Helsingfors. V. The colour of the bark of the common spruce varies from whitish grey to brown, probably due to influence of soil and climate. The following sports have been observed. 21. Var. corticata, Schröter, op. cit. 184 (1898). Bark thick, up to 3^ in., longitudinally fissured, and resembling that of a pine in external appearance, though in microscopical structure like the ordinary spruce. Schröter knew in 1898 only six spruces with thick bark, occurring in Austria, Bohemia, Hesse, Bavaria, and Switzerland ; but more than twenty are now known6 in the latter country alone. 22. Var. tuberculata, Schröter, op. cit. 190 (1898). Lower part of the stem covered with corky excrescences, projecting about an inch above the surface of the bark, where side branches are given off.6 Four examples only were known to Schröter in 1898, two in Austria, one in Bavaria, and one in Swit zerland ; but Badoux6 states that many more have since been found in Switzerland. VI. In addition to the varieties and sports just described, which are of unknown origin, there are many peculiar forms of the spruce which are due to external in fluences, and which cannot, properly speaking, be named varieties or sports. 1. The candelabra spruce is often produced, when the leading shoot is broken off by the force of the wind or by other causes. A whorl of secondary branches becomes erect below the broken part of the stem, and forming a series of leaders, grows up, giving the tree a candelabra-like appearance. 2. Dwarf spruces,7 which are mere bushes, with irregular branches, dense 1 Fowler, in Card. Chron. 1872, p. 76, speaks of the inconstancy of the colour in different parts of the tree. 2 Cf. Masters, in Card. Chron. vil 578 (1890). 3 Kew. Bull. 1908, p. 391. * In Hartman, Skand. Flora, 35 (1889). 6 Badoux, injourn. forest. Suisse, 1907, quoted by Beissner, in Mitt. Deut. Dend. Ges. 1910, p. 122. 6 Cf. Cieslar, in Centralblatt Gesamte Forstwesen, xx. Heft 4, pp. 145-149 (1894). Schröter compares these corky excrescences with those developed on the stems of Zanthoxylum, studied by Barber, in Ann. Jlot. vi. 155 (1892). 1 Ficea ellipsoconis, Borbas, Magyar Bot. Lapok, i. 26 (1902), a shrub-like spruce growing as scrub near tree-limit in " the western Carpathians, with short broad cones, is considered by Pax, in Pßanzcnverb. Karpathai, ii. 177 (1908), to owe its peculiarities to the high altitude, similar shrubs being recorded for the eastern Alps by Beck. Picea foliage, and numerous leaders occur in alpine regions, and are due either to the severe climate or to constant cropping by goats and sheep. 3. Witches' brooms on the spruce have hitherto been supposed to be due to the irritation of fungi, bacteria, or mites. Tubeuf,1 in January 1907, sowed seed which he obtained from a witches' broom that had borne cones. The greater part of the seedlings are normal, but a certain number are dwarf and bushy. Tubeuf supposes that some of the former will in time develop witches' brooms on some of their branches, and that the latter will probably remain dwarf, resembling the varieties2 Clanbras- siliana, pumila, etc., already referred to as of unknown origin. 4. Masters3 gives a figure of a remarkable branch of a spruce, in which the leading shoot had split into two portions for some distance, re-uniting above to form again one stem. DISTRIBUTION P. excelsa is a native of Europe, extending from the Pyrenees, Alps, and Balkans northward through south Germany and east Prussia to Scandinavia, and eastward through the Carpathians and Poland to western Russia. In France, the spruce occurs in the mountains, mixed with the silver fir, and in the zone above it, the lower limit in the Vosges and Jura being about 2000 ft. It is not at all abundant in the Vosges, where it ascends to 4300 ft. ; but in the Jura covers large areas, and reaches 5000 ft. altitude. It attains its greatest importance in Savoy, which is the only region in France where the spruce is the dominant tree, forming one half of the whole area occupied by forests. The forest of Thônes,4 near Annecy, which I visited in 1904, is one of the best examples of a spruce forest in France; and is treated on the selection system. It contains about 320 acres, lying between 2500 and 4300 ft. elevation on a steep slope, and is a mixture of two-thirds spruce and one-third silver fir. The standing timber is estimated at 7000 cubic ft. per acre, the annual felling averaging 53 cubic ft., with a revolution fixed at 144 years. The spruce is absent in the Cevennes, and is extremely rare on the north side of the Pyrenees, where it is replaced by fine forests of Pinus montana. Willkomm records it for the Pyrenees of Catalonia and Aragon, where it is not at all common. Its most southerly point in western Europe is the forest of La Cinca, south of Mt. Maladetta in lat. 42° 30'. In Germany, the northern limit of distribution, beginning in the Vosges, passes through the Pfalz, and after crossing the Rhine at lat. 50°, makes a bend to the west ward through Westphalia, and reaches the Weser Mountains, where, near Minden, the spruce attains its most northerly point as a wild tree in western Germany, lat. 52° 20'. From here the limit passes through Hildesheim, Wolfenbüttel, Walbeck near Magdeburg, and Halberstadt to Altenburg ; whence, taking a north-easterly direction, it is continued through Spremburg and Soran to Ostrowo, reaching the Russian frontier at lat. 52°. It then passes northward, parallel with the frontier, to 1 Cf. Prof. Somerville, in Quart. Journ. Forestry, iv. 309 (1910). 2 Cf. var. tabulceformis, Carrière, ante p. 1343. 3 In Card. Chron. xxiii. 274, fig. 52 (1885)- * Cf. Bitll. Soc. Forest. Franclie-ComU, vii. 630 (1904). 1346 The Trees of Great Britain and Ireland Gilgenberg in the province of East Prussia, and reaches the Gulf of Danzig at Elbing. In southern Germany it is scattered, or in small woods in the plains and valleys, being probably planted ;1 and as a wild tree is nearly confined to the mountains, where it occupies a distinct zone, with clearly defined upper and lower limits. The largest pure forests in Germany occur in the Harz mountains, which are almost entirely covered with spruce, ascending to 3300 ft., and in the Iser and Riesen mountains, up to 3900 ft. In the other great forest regions of Germany, as in the Thuringian, Bavarian, and Bohemian forests, the Fichtel and Erz mountains, central Saxony, etc., the spruce, in mixture with the silver fir, covers immense areas. In the province of East Prussia, there are very large forests on the plain, in which the spruce grows in company with the common pine, birch, alder, and willows ; but it is absent on pure sandy soils, where the common pine reigns supreme. The spruce is met with throughout the Alps in Switzerland and Italy, ranging in Tessin between 2700 and 6000 feet, and occupying a small outlying area in the Euganean hills in Lombardy. It is quite unknown in the Apennines. In Austro-Hungary, extensive forests of spruce, often almost pure, occur in the Carpathians from Silesia to Bukowina, and in the Transylvanian mountains. The largest spruce recorded2 is one which grew in the Carpathians, measuring 226 feet in height and 11^ feet in girth at breast height. In the Balkan peninsula8 the spruce reaches its most southerly limit, a line extending from the mountains of northern Albania to the Kopaonik mountain in Servia, whence it is prolonged eastward to the Rhodope mountains in Rumelia about lat. 42°. In Bosnia, Servia, Montenegro, Croatia, and Herzegovina, the spruce usually grows in mixture with the beech and silver fir, occupying a zone on the moun tains between 3000 and 6000 feet ; but in northern Albania the lower limit rises to 4000 ft. Huffel4 states that in Roumania, the spruce attains enormous dimensions, a tree, which was cut down in 1888 in the forest of Tarcau, measuring 195 ft. in height by 3 ft. 3 in. in diameter at breast height ; it was 392 years old. The spruce is much less common in Roumania than the silver fir, ascending to 6000 ft. in Wallachia and to 5000 feet in Moldavia ; while in Bukovina the spruce is more abundant than the silver fir, and occupies a zone between 2600 and 5200 ft. In Russia the southern limit of the spruce (including P. obovata and P. excelsa) extends from the frontier of Galicia, at lat. 50°, eastwards through northern Volhynia and Starodul in the government of Chernikof, crossing the river Oka at lat. 53° or 54°, to the southern boundary of the government of Kazan. From this northwards to the Arctic circle, the spruce is prevalent ; but the exact boundary of the two species is unknown. So far as I have seen specimens, the spruce in Finland and near St. Petersburg is P. obovata, which all authors agree is the only spruce found in north eastern Russia, as nothing like P. excelsa is seen to the eastward of the rivers Dwina 1 It is supposed never to be native in situations below 1300 ft., though it thrives when planted. Left to nature the beech speedily supplants it on all soils at low elevations in southern Germany. 2 Wessely, quoted by Mathieu, FI. Forestière, 541 (1897). I have not been able to verify this record; but Schröter and Kirchner, op. cit. 115 (1906) state that Enderlin measured in the Grisons two trees as follows :—one, 143 ft. high, 6 ft. 3 in. in diameter, with a volume of 1300 cubic feet ; the other, 152 ft. high, 4 ft. 11 in. in diameter, with a volume of 1150 cubic feet. 3 Beck von Mannagettn, Veg. Illyrisch. Land. 287 (1901). 4 Extrait Bull. Minist. Agric. Paris, 1890, p. 6. Picea 1347 and Viatka. Korskinsky states] that the typical form of P. excelsa occurs only in western Russia in the region adjoining the German plain ; and the varieties which he describes as occurring in central and northern Russia, and linking P. obovata with P. excelsa, seem to me to be simply P. obovata with cones slightly larger than those occurring in the Ural range. Von Sievers2 says that the spruce is the only shade-bearing tree in the Baltic provinces, and attains in favourable situations a height of 160 feet. It occurs naturally on better soil than the pine (which occupies poor sandy soil) and competes with the birch and alder on clay, thriving well on deep peat, if this is rich in mineral salts. The original conifer of Norway was Pinus sylvestris, the remains of which are found everywhere in peat mosses. The spruce is a late emigrant from Sweden and Lapland. It occupies in Norway three distinct regions :3— A. The spruce is found in the far north in isolated stations, as on the Varanger- fjord, lat. 69" 30', at Karasjok, lat. 68° 30', and at Saltdalen, on the west coast, lat. 67° io'.4 The spruce here is P. obovata, these stations being outposts of the north Russian spruce, which extends eastwards through Enara Lapland to the Kola peninsula, and through Swedish Lapland from Sulitjelma to Palojuensun on the Muonio river. B. In the Trondhjem district the spruce reaches the coast, and is connected with the northern Swedish spruce, through four passes in the range separating Norway from the Swedish province of Jemtland. This spruce is P. obovata.6 C. In southern Norway the spruce, which appears to be P. excelsa, occupies a distinct area, separated from the last by the Dovre-fjeld, and continuous with the spruce forests of south Sweden, there being no high mountains intervening between the two countries for a considerable distance north of Svinesund. Throughout this region, no remains of the spruce have been found in peat mosses, though those of the common pine are plentiful ; and the spruce is evidently a late emigrant, not having yet reached the west coast. Through Romsdal, Bergenhus, and Stavanger provinces, and the district of Lister, the area covered by forest is not extensive, the principal trees being pine and birch, while the spruce is rarely if ever found wild, except in the inland district of Voss, situated about 40 miles east of Bergen. According to Schubeler, the spruce ascends on the Jotunfjeld to 3250 feet, and in Hallingdal to 3400 feet. South and east of the mountains, the greater part of the very extensive forest area consists of spruce, mixed to some extent with pine and birch. The Norwegian spruce is said to contain a relatively small amount of resin, and is there fore largely used in the production of mechanical and chemical wood-pulp, an industry, which in some places has begun to threaten the continued existence of the spruce forests. The spruce bark is also used for tanning. 1 Tent. Fl. Koss. Orient. 494 (1898). * Forst. Verhält. Bait. Prov. 18 (1903). 3 Cf. Semander, in Engler, Bot. Jahrbuch, xv. 3 (1893). 4 Elwes found it here in 1903 only as a rare isolated tree, and was told that the Ranenfjonl, 50 miles south was its real northern limit. t 6 Specimens collected at Trondhjem and at Bracke in Sweden are identical, and are indistinguishable from specimens gathered in Perm in north-eastern Russia. 1348 The Trees of Great Britain and Ireland In Sweden the exact limits1 between P. obovata and P. excelsa are unknown to me ; but there is no doubt that in the northern part of the country, from Jemtland northwards, P. obovata is the sole species. In southern Sweden, the tree appears to be P. excelsa? and its distribution3 is peculiar, as it does not extend to the extreme south, not occurring in Skâne north of lat. 56° 10', and not extending to nearer the west coast, from Strömstad to Halmsted, than fifteen miles at any point. Its remains have not been found in the peat mosses south of Jönköping on Lake Wetter ; and it is supposed to have spread southward of this point in quite recent times ; and this is confirmed by ancient maps of North Skâne, which show that there were no spruce forests in this district at the beginning of the i7th century. (A. H.) In Scandanavia the spruce is called gran, or rödgran. From what I have seen in the forests of north and south Trondhjem it is usually found on the better class of land, and even there does not grow so large as farther south, ascending to about 2000 ft. in Tydal and Stordal, and attaining about 100 ft. in height by 8 to IQ ft. in girth. I have not noticed, even near the coast, that the trees are browned by the west wind, as they are sometimes even, far inland, in England, but the tree is rarely seen on the exposed parts of the coast, or on the islands, where the Scots pine grows alone. Schübeler, Viridarium Norvegictim, figs. 66, 68, 69, figures three trees remarkable for their habit, one having the branches very short and crowded on the upper part of the stem, and another a good example of the snake spruce, var. mrgata, Caspary. Figures 73, 74, and 75 show instances of natural layering ; and figures 76 and 77, trees grown from a fallen stem. Figure 78 shows a candelabra-shaped tree growing near Horten in the Christiana fjord. It is stated that the varieties known in cultivation as vars. nana, inverta, and Clanbrassiliana have all been found wild on the coast of Norway. The tallest spruce mentioned in Norway by Schübeler was in Hurdalen (lat. 60° 24'), and measured 130 ft. high by 3 ft. 5 in. in diameter; and I am informed of one recently cut in South Rendalen, which was 125 ft. high, and 15 in. in diameter at 80 ft. from ground, and 25 in. at 20 ft. Five logs over 20 ft. long were cut from this one tree. The largest spruce I have heard of in Sweden is mentioned by Schübeler (p. 409). It grew in Oster Gotland (lat. 58°) and measured 150 Swedish feet (44.54 m.), with a diameter of 6 ft. (1.78 m.). In Professor Göppert's memoir4 on the Primœval Forests of Silesia and Bohemia there are many illustrations of the remarkable forms which the spruce assumes when left absolutely in a state of nature, in regions where the snow lies long and deep. These forests are not described in detail, but are above the region of deciduous trees, and consist mainly of spruce and silver fir, with Sorbus Auciiparia, Salix silesiaca, and Lonicera nigra as underwood. Many of the fallen and rotting 1 Wittrock, in Act. Hort. Berg. iv. No. 7, p. 69 (1907), agrees with me in laying stress on the character of the twigs in the discrimination of the two species, P. obovata and P. excelsa, which he considers to exist in Sweden. Cf. his article in Krok, Hartman's Skand. Flora, 1889, p. 34. 2 Cf. Sylven, in Skog. Tidsk. 1909, Fack. pp. 201-261. 3 Cf. Hesselman and Schotte, in Mcdd. Slat. SkogsforsSksanstalt, Heft 3, pp. 1-52, with maps (1906). 4 Göppert, Skizzen zur Kenntniss der Urwälder Schlesiens und Böhmens, in Nova Ada Acad. Leap. Carol. Nat. Cur. xxxiv. (1868). Picea stems are covered with trees which have sprung from seeds germinating in the moss on these trunks. Göppert mentions one about 50 ft. long on which he counted thirty- six living trees of various ages from 4 ft. to 80 ft. high. On another 70 ft. long, there were thirty-two trees from eighty to one hundred years old, all of which had their roots resting on the fallen tree which had given them birth. Such examples are figured in his plates vii., via., and ix. Another form is shown in plate ii., figs. 7, 8, and 9, which illustrate trees which have grown from seeds falling on stumps of broken or dead trees at a considerable height from the ground, and which have forced their roots down through the decaying wood, in one case from a height of 16 feet, to the ground. When the stump decayed the roots were strong enough to support the young tree, which eventually was left standing like a Pandanus on a pyramid of its own roots. In some cases, as shown in plate iv., fig. n, two trees which had originated separately on the same stump became perfectly inarched at the root. Plate iv., fig. 12, shows a remarkable instance of a stump no less than 6 ft. in diameter, which had become covered with a thick layer of moss, and assumed the appearance of a gigantic mushroom, on the top of which no less than seven young spruces from 2 to 40 ft. high were growing without their roots having reached the ground at all. Plate ix., fig. 22, proves, according to Göppert, the immense period which may elapse in these forests before the fallen trees are absolutely decayed and resolved into humus. It shows, A, a fallen tree, of which the wood was nearly all dissolved into long brown pieces, only held together by the overgrowing thick moss, into something like the original shape of the trunk ; B is a tree which had fallen on the top of it at a later period, and was decayed about half through ; C is a living tree estimated at 300 years old, which had germinated on B, and buried its roots partly in and partly on one side of it. Göppert believes that from 1000 to 1200 years may have elapsed since the germination of the lowest tree, A ; but it seems to me that even if it was 400 years old when it fell, the second, B, may have fallen soon afterwards, and owe the slower decay of its wood to the comparative dryness of its position above A. Still it proves that the decay of such a comparatively soft wood as spruce or silver fir (the species is not in this case specified) is extraordinarily slow under the conditions prevalent in these forests. As a proof of its slowness of growth in some instances Forstmeister John remarked that the spruce in the densest parts of the forest attained an age of 120 to 160 years without exceeding 5 to 7 in. in diameter. I have myself cut in Norway a spruce which showed over forty annual rings, and was still thin enough to serve as a walking-stick, which I used through three seasons of elk-hunting before it broke under my weight. In the Böhmerwald the spruce comes to perfection at a higher level than the beech and silver fir, from 3000 to 3400 feet ; and in the Kubany forest there are thousands of trees from 120 to 150 ft. high, and 12 to 16 ft. in girth. It attains a greater age than the silver fir, some trees showing no less than 700 annual rings, though still quite sound. From 3600 ft. up to the highest peaks, which in this range of mountains attain little over 4500 ft., the spruce changes its habit, the stems I35° The Trees of Great Britain and Ireland becoming shorter and the branches more spreading and drooping on account of the heavier snowfall, so that when adult they assume a regular pyramidal or conical shape. At 3500 ft., a tree 3 ft. in diameter showed 420 rings ; and on the top of Kubany at 4100 ft., another with a diameter of 2 ft. had 235 rings. On the Arber mountain, the highest peak of all, at 4200 ft., Göppert saw a tree 3 ft. thick, but only 40 ft. in height ; but even at this elevation the majority of the trees are neither crippled nor diseased, as is often the case near the limit of trees in the Alps and Riesengebirge, where they are covered with lichens. Above these altitudes the lower branches often spread on the ground and form natural layers, which grow upright and make a colony of small trees around their parent. Such an instance is shown in plate i. fig. 2, and another even more curious on fig. 3, where the main trunk of a tree about 5 ft. in girth curved to one side and threw up a secondary straight stem from the nearly horizontal part of its bole. Figure 4 shows a fallen stem 32 ft. long, which remained living and bore no less than five erect trees from 10 to 37 ft. high, which apparently drew the whole of their nourishment from the original roots of the parent tree. Another peculiarity which occasionally appears in these forests are trees with immense swellings on their trunk, in the form of irregular burrs equally developed all round the trunk. Plate i. fig. 5, shows a spruce 18 in. in diameter at the ground, which has a regular swelling, shaped like a flattened orange, no less than 12 ft. in diameter, and from the centre of which the straight trunk again emerges with a diameter of 16 in. Göppert saw in Silesia an even more extraordinary tree (plate i. fig. 6), which was 45 ft. high and 2 ft. in diameter near the ground. At 7 ft. a regular swelling suddenly began (which is described as covered with many branches, but in the drawing shows none on one side) with a diameter of 10 to 12 ft. and 23 ft. high, above which it tapers off into a normal stem. No disease could be found in the bark or wood, which appeared completely sound, and the upper part of the tree is shown crowded with healthy branches. A remarkable group of four spruces growing at timber line (about 1850 metres altitude), on the north side of the Great Scheidegg, is figured by Dr. Klein,1 which from their position appear to have all sprung from seeds which have grown on a rotting trunk. Another remarkable illustration of the effect of wind on the growth of the spruce at high elevations is shown in plate 54 of the same work. A group of trees growing at about 4600 ft. on the Feldberg in the Black Forest, from 10 to 16 ft. high, have the branches cut off clean on the west side, which is attributed by Dr. Klein not alone to the drying effect of the wind in winter and spring, but also to the heating of the branches on one side only by the sun. In the same work are several illustrations of the dense spruce bushes,'called " feisstannli " by the Swiss, which are common in alpine regions, and are caused by the constant cropping of goats and sheep. In the virgin forests of the Capella Mountains in Croatia I saw, in 1910, some spruce of immense height;2 and measured one of about 170 ft. by 12^ ft. I was informed that, in this forest, spruce had been felled 190 ft. high and about 12 ft. in 1 Karsten and Schenck, Vegetationsbilder, \\, t. 38 (1905). 2 Cf. Quart. Journ. Forestry, v. 31 (1911). Picea Ï3S1 girth, and that about 300 years is the maximum age at which this tree remains sound. The spruce is not a native of Britain at the present epoch ; but remains of it have been found in pre-glacial beds at Cromer, Mundesley, Bacton, and Happisburgh in Norfolk.1 CULTIVATION It appears to have been introduced early in the sixteenth century, as Turner includes it in his Names of Herbes published in 1548 ; and both Gérard and Parkinson state that it was found in different parts of Britain. The spruce is easy to raise from seed, but the seedlings grow very slowly for the first three or four years, and are rarely large enough to plant out until they are four to six years old. I have noticed a great deal of variation in the time at which their new growth appears, and it is well to separate the earliest, which are very liable to be injured by spring frost, whilst those which do not start into growth till June remain uninjured. Few conifers are easier to transplant either in spring or autumn, provided the roots are not allowed to become dry ; but if exposed to the air in dry or cold weather a good many will die, or languish for two or three years after planting. The tree grows on almost any soil, but requires a sheltered situation to attain a great height and only comes to perfection where the soil is moist and not liable to dry up in summer. Grown in dense woods, the spruce is liable to be blown down by the wind ; but isolated trees make much stronger roots and are moderately storm-firm. In places near the sea the foliage is often injured by the salt contained in the air, and even as far as forty miles from the Bristol Channel I have seen the spruce completely browned on the side exposed to the wind in March. Though the seed ripens freely in most seasons and germinates readily, the spruce rarely reproduces itself from seed in England owing to its slow growth at first and the weak hold of its young roots on the soil, which cause the seedlings to wither up in summer or to be thrown out of the ground in winter. I only know a few places on my estate where self-sown spruce can be found ; and the seedlings have grown so slowly that I am convinced it is not an economic practice to reproduce spruce by seed, except in places where the ground is under snow for a long period. In the Highlands among heather self-sown seedlings are much commoner ; and on the shores of Loch Rannoch and in some of the old pine woods at Castle Grant there are considerable numbers of self-sown seedlings, but nothing like the number seen in Scandinavia or in the German forests, where they are protected by deep snow for a long period in winter. The spruce is a tree which has been planted more largely in England than it deserves to be ; for though it will, when established, grow on poor ill-drained soil faster than most conifers, yet the value of its timber when felled is less than that of almost any other tree ; and it is, on account of its shallow rooting habit, very likely to be blown down if the wind once gets into the plantation. VI C, Reid, Origin of British Flora, 151 (1899). D 1352 The Trees of Great Britain and Ireland As a nurse it is, on land unsuitable for Scots pine, one of the best we have, if not allowed to overcrowd the hardwoods planted with it; because its branches protect the ground from frost and drought, and its rapid growth acts as a wind break and draws up the other trees. Its roots are more superficial than those of larch or Scots pine ; and it is much cheaper to plant and less liable to injury from frost than silver fir. Loudon quotes (Arb. et Frut. Brit. p. 2305) the experience of W. Adam, Esq., of Blair, Kinross-shire, who was a great advocate of planting spruce as a nurse to oak and elm ; but it must be cut out or its lower branches lopped before it becomes large. In the east and north-east of Scotland the tree seems more promising as a forest tree ; and in the opinion of Mr. Crozier may produce a more valuable crop than either larch or Scots pine at considerable elevations. He gives me particulars of a plantation of 400 acres on the Durris estate, at an elevation of over 800 ft., which was marketed under his own supervision. The age of the trees was sixty years, the number per acre 560, averaging 10 cubic feet each. Sold standing at 5d. per foot they realised £i 16 per acre. Some parts of this plantation planted with Scots pine only made .£15 per acre, and the best of it under larch was estimated at £70 per acre. In this plantation the spruce was planted in patches, none over three or four acres, usually on sites unsuitable on account of excessive moisture for larch or Scots pine. The greater parts of the area, however, might well have been planted with spruce, as the locality is favourable to its growth, and similar results to the above are the rule rather than the exception on the whole estate. I have lately received from Mr. D. Munro of Banchory a photograph (Plate 371) of this plantation, most of the trees in which were blown down after it was sold. Mr. Crozier states that there is a large demand for home-grown spruce boards for box-making in Scotland, but that the wood must be fairly free from knots and discoloration ; and he considers it one of the most useful timbers for house-building. He adds that when planters realise that the limit of altitude for spruce planting lies above the pine belt, and not below it as seems to have been the general idea, and that it must be grown thicker than larch or Scots pine, its economic merits will become more evident than they are at present. In confirmation of Mr. Crozier's opinion that spruce is a valuable tree for planting for profit at a high elevation, I may refer to Messrs. Robinson and Watt's very full report1 on the Coombe Plantation, which lies between 900 and 1500 ft. altitude near Keswick in Cumberland. This plantation, which was sixty-one years old in 1910, consists mainly of larch, with a mixture of spruce, amounting to only one or two per cent at the lower levels, but to ten per cent at over 1250 ft. These authors state that here " spruce grows well at all elevations, and everywhere attains a greater volume than larch under the same conditions." At the higher altitudes it much exceeds the larch in volume. The influence of altitude and exposure on the spruce itself is shown in the following table :— 1 Journ. Board of Agric. xvii. 273, 360 (1910). Picea 1353 Elevation : feet. goo 1150 1250 MS0 1520 Height of tree in feet. 80 not stated Quarter-girth measurement, in cubic feet. 44 32 26 48 35 I have failed to obtain any other exact and reliable figures as to the value of a crop of spruce grown in England, except on such small and isolated patches of land, that they would give no fair criterion. As a shelter tree it makes a good edging to the roads in a plantation, and can be headed down or clipped when it has grown tall enough to keep the wind out. It bears clipping well and makes a good dense hedge on soils not liable to drought. Sargent1 states that as an ornamental tree in America, it loses vigour at twenty-five to thirty years old, except in the most favourable situations; and he only recommends it as a nurse for other trees, as it is very hardy and grows rapidly at first. As a proof, however, of the extremely vigorous growth of the spruce in America, I may say that the tallest tree in Mr. Hunnewell's Pinetum at Wellesley, Mass., which I had the pleasure of visiting with Professor Sargent in 1904, was a Norway spruce which was planted about 1852, and was in 1894 80 ft. high with branches spreading over a circle 60 ft. in diameter. When I saw it, it had increased little in height, but its lower branches had spread to 75 ft. diameter and some of them had rooted ; flowers were just showing on May 9, and cones were produced on branches close to the ground, which is rarely the case in Europe. This tree is figured on Plate 340. According to Pinchot,2 it thrives throughout the entire north-east of the United States and southward at the higher elevations ; but in the west, favourable results have been attained only as far as the eastern part of the prairie region, and then only in the more protected localities. He considers that it should be planted on a large scale in the cut-over land in the north, where the tree will provide a future supply of wood pulp, as it is in every way superior to the native spruces. REMARKABLE TREES If I could trust the measurements which have been given me I should say that the tallest spruce in this country is a tree at Rooksbury Park, Hants, the seat of J. C. Gamier, Esq. It is in a densely crowded thicket of rhododendron, surrounded by beech, and was said by Mr. A. Arnold to measure no less than 178 ft.; but after seeing it twice I could not believe that it was over 150 ft, and, owing to its position, could not measure it myself.3 In Oates Wood at the top of Cowdray Park, near the superb silver fir figured 1 Silva N. Amer. xii. 24, note (1898). 2 U.S. Forest Service, Planting Leaßet, No. 20 (1908). 3 At my request Mr. Arnold has recently re-measured this tree with a theodolite, and informs me that though he could not get a clear view of its top, he now estimates it at 149 feet. r354 The Trees of Great Britain and Ireland on Plate 208, there are two remarkably tall trees, which in 1903 I estimated at 140 to 150 ft., but owing to the steep slope on which they grow, and to the adjoining trees, I could not measure a base line. They were 11 ft. 6 in. and lo^ ft. in girth in 1906. Mr. Harold Pearson has recently had these measured by Mr. T. Roberts, forester at Cowdray, who informs me that he levelled a base line, and found the height in January 1911 to be 153 ft.; but this tree which has three leaders is not so handsome as the other, which he thought was about 148 ft. high. The tallest which I have myself measured are two trees growing on the edge of the lake near Fountains Abbey, Studley Royal, Yorkshire, which Loudon describes as the tallest spruces known to him, and says were 132 ft. high. When 1 saw them in 1905 I found one to be 140 ft. by 12 ft. 10 in., and the other 137 ft. by ii ft. They are free from branches for 30 to 40 ft, and seemed in excellent health, though probably over 150 years old (Plate 341). In Earl Bathurst's woods at Cirencester there are two narrow avenues of spruce known as the Cathedral firs, because they resemble the cross aisles of a cathedral. Of these Plate 342, from a negative taken by Mr. T. E. Gerald Strickland, gives an excellent picture as they were four years ago, but since then several have been blown down, one of which was over 100 ft. high, and showed on the stump 134 annual rings. Those standing average from 110 to 120 ft. high by 8 to 10 ft. in girth. On my own land at Lyde near Colesborne, in a deep sheltered valley, there is a tree about 125 ft. by 8 ft., but this is beginning to decay at the base, though not much over 100 years old. At Bowood, Wilts, I saw a very fine tree which measured, in 1908, 125 ft. by io ft. 8 in. ; but there may be better ones here. On the Earl of Powis's estate at Walcot, Shropshire, there is a wood of spruce about loo years old on a steep hill-side next to the Plassey plantation, a photograph of which has been reproduced in the Quarterly Journal of Forestry, iii. p. 358. I have seen no spruce plantation in England which equals this, and am indebted to Mr. R. H. Newill, agent for the estate, for the following account :— " When I came to measure up an area in the Spruce Plantation, near Plassey, I found it difficult to find a piece without any gaps in it, as the wind has been busy of late years, and has blown down many trees. Eventually I chose a piece near the top and squared i^ chain along the bank and i chain down it, an area of 0.15 acre. On this were twenty-two trees standing, of which I enclose measurements.1 No. i 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Length, Feet. 80 76 79 80 7i 84 81 83 Quarter- girth, Inches. 9* 9* 12 8 9 10 9* 9i Cubic Feet. 50.1 47-7 79- 35-6 39-11 58-4 50.9 52- No. 9 10 n 12 13 H 15 Length, Feet. 80 82 75 80 80 35 (70 \I2 Quarter- girth, Inches. 12 «si n 14 12 9 13* 6* Cubic Feet. 80 103.9 63 loS.IO 80 19.8 88.7 3-6 No. 1 6 17 18 19 20 21 22 Length, Feet. 78 80 81 76 ( 39 21 ( 15 75 74 Quarter- girth, Inches. 12 II* 8* 13* '3i 7 5 9 10 Cubic Feet. 78 73-5 40.7 96.2 49-4 7-1 2.7 42.2 51-4 Total 22 trees, 1401 cubic feet. Picea These vary from 19 to 103 cubic feet, and average 63.7 cubic feet. I found stumps of seven more trees on the area, and taking them at the same average there would be about 1849 feet ; or about 193 trees measuring 12,326 cubic feet per acre. The age of the trees is about 100 years ; the rings are well marked to eighty- five years, afterwards so very close together that it is difficult to count them. All the trees are going back very fast, I believe every one is decayed at the butt ; and in the lower part of the plantation many are blown down or broken off each year. We could only obtain 3d. to 4d. per foot for this class of timber, and it was in order to turn it to a more profitable use, that I put down the creosoting plant." Assuming that this plantation had been clean felled at eighty years of age and that it had then contained 10,000 cubic feet per acre, the annual increment would have been 125 feet per acre; and taking the price at 4d. per foot standing the value of the crop would have been ,£166 per acre. The trees are facing north-east at an elevation of 600 to 900 ft., and the old red sandstone here seems to suit all kinds of trees, both hardwoods and conifers, as well as any soil in England. At Kyre Park there is a remarkable old spruce of the candelabra type which has an immense rugged bole broken off at about 30 ft., and 15 ft. 9 in. in girth. One of its upright branches is no less than io ft. 4 in. in girth, and twelve others have naturally layered themselves in a circle 64 ft. in diameter, and grown up into trees, two of which are 90 ft. high by 8 ft. in girth. Another remarkable instance of layering in the spruce is at Langley Park, Slough, where a tree on the lawn has been broken off at about 20 ft. and whose lower branches have formed a complete bower, resembling on a smaller scale that formed by the Whittingehame yew. Some of the small branches, only one to three inches thick, have formed a woody mass and thickened enormously at the point where they have taken root. In Wales the finest spruce we have seen are in a wood above Gwydyr Castle, where in 1905 I measured two trees in a grove round the bowling green, which were about 125 ft. high by 9 ft. 8 in. and 6 ft. io in. in girth. In this grove, which is shown in Plate 343, the spruce seems to clean itself better than in England, and I estimated that there might be 8000 to 10,000 cubic ft. per acre. Mr. Richards, forester to Lord Penrhyn, informed me that at Tyn-y-Coed in the same district of North Wales, a spruce plantation was felled in 1902 and sold to Mr. J. Jones of Liverpool, a tree in which is said to have been 149 ft. high, and that 158 trees in this wood contained 11,937 cubic ft., an average of over 75 cubic ft. ; two of them measuring respectively 80 ft. by 23 in. quarter-girth = 294 cubic ft., and 67 ft. by 27 in. = 338 cubic ft. It is evident from these figures that even if the value of the timber is low as compared with imported spruce, yet that it may pay well in this particular district, provided the trees are grown thickly enough. In Scotland the largest spruce of which we have any record grew at Blair Atholl, and was visited by the Scottish Arboricultural Society in 1879. It was then said to measure 142 ft. high, and to contain over 420 cubic ft. of timber.1 I 1 Hunter, Woods of Perthshire, 60 (1883). 1356 The Trees of Great Britain and Ireland was informed by the late Mr. Pitcaithley, forester to the late Earl of Mansfield, that this tree was blown down about 1893, when the height above given was verified. The tallest that we now know of, are probably some trees on the banks of a deep glen at Dupplin Castle, which I saw in 1907, and on account of their leaning to one side could not measure accurately, but thought must be from 130 ft. to 140 ft. high. A fine tree in the same place, dividing into two stems at thirty feet from the ground, measured about 100 ft. by 12 ft. 10 in. At Methven, Henry measured a tree in 1904 as 125 ft. by 8 ft. 3 inches. At Inveraray I saw trees over 120 ft. by 8 to 10 ft., and the forester, Mr. Campbell, told me that he had measured one blown down on Ben-y-Cuach 130 ft. long. In the woods of Glenaray the spruce seems to grow very well, being sheltered from the westerly gales ; but I do not remember to have seen such large or thriving trees elsewhere on the west coast of Scotland. In the east of Sutherlandshire, I am told by Mr. Gillanders that spruce grows well and cleans itself better than in the south. In Ireland we have not seen any trees of extraordinary size, and as a rule the climate is not adapted to the production of high-class spruce timber. But Mr. A. E. Forbes has sent me an account of a remarkable plantation near Fermoy, which I reproduce verbatim, and am indebted to Lieut. and Quartermaster T. Smith, R.E., for a negative which gives a good idea of this plantation (Plate 344). " A very fine clump of common spruce is growing in Glenshiskin Wood, which forms part of the property purchased by the War Department a few years ago near Kilworth. This wood occupies a valley running into the Kilworth mountains, a low range of hills formed from the Old Red Sandstone formation. A small mountain stream flows down the centre of this valley, and at one point, about 300 feet above sea-level, an alluvial deposit has been formed along its course of about an acre in extent. In this deposit a clump of almost pure spruce was planted about eighty years ago, and judging from appearances was never thinned or attended to in any way. From time to time poles were doubtless removed from it as required ; but no systematic thinning could have been carried out, as many of the trees still stand within four or five feet of each other. " This clump probably presents as fine an example of spruce growth in Britain as can be found anywhere. The trees vary in height from 90 to no ft., and form long clean poles with little taper, and ranging from 8£ to 18 in. quarter-girth at 4^ ft. from ground. The trees in two-thirds of an acre were carefully measured by Mr. M'Rae, forester at Dundrum, Co. Tipperary, in the spring of 1910, and the summary of the results obtained is given below :— Picea T357 Spruce Larch Stumps of Felled Trees No. 161 ii I 10 Age. 78 years » ... Average Height. 98 feet 99 » ... Average Quarter- girth at 4^ ft. 12^ in. 1 2 £- in. ... Total Cubic Contents. 8050 55° ... 8600 "By dividing the trees into three stem classes, a volume of 9600 cubic feet was obtained. Assuming the estimate of 8600 ft. to be correct, the average contents of the trees is about 50 ft., and the total yield per acre would be over 12,000 cubic ft., which for the period of eighty years is higher than anything I have heard of in Great Britain. " Within recent years, trees similar in size to those still standing have been removed, and the stumps still exist. It is quite possible, therefore, that the existing crop is smaller in volume than that which stood on the ground a few years ago. The high yield is, of course, largely due to the exceptionally favourable soil and situation of the site on which the trees were grown. A fine, rich, and well-drained soil, well provided with soil and atmospheric moisture, and a situation sheltered from all winds, provide ideal conditions for the growth of spruce or any other tree able to thrive with a moderate amount of summer heat. Oak and beech growing in the immediate vicinity of these trees are very poorly developed and covered with lichen and moss, indicating the cool and humid conditions which prevail." TIMBER Next to that of the Scots pine, the wood of the spruce is the largest import from the Baltic ; and from Norway the proportion of spruce timber is probably greater. On account of climatic and economic causes, it seems probable that this will always be the case, though in the west coast ports American spruce takes its place. For scaffold and ladder poles, small spars and masts, and oars, we cannot hope to compete with the north of Europe ; whilst for flooring, joists, and almost all purposes except those for which knotty boards are not objected to, it seems equally hopeless for British growers to attempt to compete with the well-known white deal of commerce. The reasons why the value of home-grown spruce timber is so low are, first, its very knotty character, caused by the persistence of the branches, which die more slowly than those of other conifers ; and, secondly, its want of strength and durability as compared with larch. Continental foresters tell us that the first defect may be obviated by close planting, and cite the large profit which is derived from this tree in Germany and Scandinavia. I have inquired of many of our best practical foresters ; but I have never been able to find any plantation in England, and only very small areas in Scotland, Wales, and Ireland, where spruce, which stood close 1358 The Trees of Great Britain and Ireland enough to kill the branches, have attained a considerable size, or where a spruce plantation has been a really profitable investment. My own experience is, that land where spruce may be well grown is fit to produce a much more valuable timber, and that on ordinary land it will starve to death before it will clean itself from branches. The late Mr. Philip Baylis, Deputy- Surveyor of Dean Forest, told me that spruces there, 50 to 60 ft. high, and so thickly planted that no vegetation would exist under them, still retained the dead branches to within 5 or 6 ft. from the ground ; and I think that this will apply to most places in England and Scotland. When the tree is of large size it usually becomes rotten at the heart near the ground ; and the top is often broken by the wind. Though the timber may be worth 4d. to 6d. per cubic foot for rough boarding or packing-cases, or for temporary sleepers and pit props in collieries or railways under construction, yet in quantity it is the most unsaleable wood we have. When, as often happens, large quantities are blown down by a heavy gale, I have known cases where no one would go to the expense of cutting up and removing the trees if they had them for nothing, and the proprietor has had considerable expense in doing so without any return whatever. When blown down, the shallow spreading roots tear up the ground for some distance round the tree and are very costly to get rid of, or if left leave the ground in a bad state for re-planting. Where, however, the soil and climate allow the spruce to be crowded closely enough to clean itself, before it becomes rotten at heart or is blown down, spruce timber may be used for estate building purposes, if not with actual economy, yet in many cases more advantageously than by selling it. Sixpence per foot is something like the average price, though 3d. to 4d. often has to be accepted. On shallow and dry soils the spruce often begins to decay at the heart for some feet from the ground at the age of fifty to seventy years, and on such soils should not be planted at all. Its spreading roots, which are extremely tough and elastic, are used in Scandinavia for the knees of boats, though rarely so utilised in England. The tough and durable branches made into a wattled fence will last for a long period, and are the common farm fence in many parts of Norway and in the Alps. When facilities exist for creosoting, spruce may be used for fencing and other outside work, such as sheds and outbuildings ; but unless treated with some preservative it soon decays when exposed to wet and dry. The spruce trees which produce the bois de resonance, used for sounding- boards in musical instruments, grow at high elevations in the Alps, the Jura, and in the Bohemian and Bavarian forests. These are very old trees, the growth of which has been extremely slow and very uniform, the annual rings not exceeding 1*2 in., and containing only a slight amount of autumn wood. These trees are usually covered with lichens, and their selected timber sells at very high prices, as much as 95. to 12s. per cubic foot. Burgundy pitch is a resinous product of the spruce, well known under the name of Burgony Pitch and Pix Burgundica as long ago as 1640. It was formerly Picea produced in the Vosges Mountains, but now, according to Flückiger and H anbury,1 mainly in Finland, the Black Forest, Austria, and Switzerland. Flückiger states that at Oppenau, in Baden, the principal place of its manufacture in Germany, it is mixed with French turpentine from Bordeaux and with rosin from N. America ; and the tapping of the trees in Government forests in Baden and Württemburg is now prohibited on account of the injury caused thereby to the timber. It is very generally adulterated in England, and is mainly used as an ingredient in plaisters.1 (H. J. E.) PICEA OBOVATA, SIBERIAN SPRUCE Picea obovata, Ledebour, Fl. Alt. iii. t. 499, iv. p. 201 (1833); Trautvetter, in Middendorf, Reise, i. pt. ii. 87, 170 (1847); Maximowicz, Prim. Fl. Amur. 261 (1859); Regel, Tent. Fl. Ussur. 137 (1861); Herder, in Hot. Jahrb. xiv. 160 (1891); Willkomm, Forstliche Flora, 93 (1887); Kent, Veitch's Man. Conif. 441 (1900); Komarov, Fl. Mansh. i. 197 (1901); Clinton-Baker, Illust. Conif. ii. 42 (1909). Picea vulgaris, Link, var. altaica, Teplouchoff, in Bull. Soc. Nat. Mosc. xli. pt. ii. 250 (1869). Picea excelsa, Link, var. obovata, Schröter, in Viertel/. Naturf. Ges. Zürich, xliii. 138 (1898). Pinus Abies, Pallas, Fl. Ross. i. 6 (1784) (not Linnaeus). Pinus obovata, Antoine, Conif. 96 (1840-1847). Pinus orientalis, Ledebour, Fl. Ross. iii. 671 (in part) (1847-1849) (not Linnaeus). Abies obovata, Don, ex Loudon, Arb. et Frut. Brit. iv. 2329 (1838). A tree, attaining in Russia and Siberia the dimensions of P. excelsa, which it resembles in habit of growth and in bark. Young branchlets reddish brown, covered with a dense minute pubescence, which is retained for several years, the older branchlets becoming greyish yellow. Buds, about £ in. long, conic, composed of closely appressed scales, rounded at their apices ; terminal bud girt with a ring of keeled acuminate ciliate scales, and closely surrounded at the base by the uppermost leaves. Leaves, arranged as in P. excelsa, deep green in colour, | to f in. long, ending in a short point, quadrangular in section, with three to four stomatic lines on each side. Cones i\ to 3^ in. long, \\ to i \ in. in diameter when open, shining brown when ripe ; scales numerous, thin, tough, flexible, longer than broad, T60 to & in. wide, and ^ to ^ in. long, fan-shaped, widest near the upper edge, tapering to the base on each side ; upper margin thin, undulate, rounded or with a slightly projecting occasionally bifid apex ; exposed part pale brown, glabrous ; concealed part reddish brown, minutely pubescent; flat or slightly concave internally from side to side; bract £ in. long, lanceolate, narrowing to an acute denticulate apex. Seed £ in., brownish black ; seed with narrow wing f to § in. long, broadest near the rounded denticulate apex. The description of P. obovata given above is drawn up from specimens procured from Siberia, and from Perm in Russia, by Mr. H. Clinton-Baker, from specimens collected in Finland by Mr. M. P. Price, and from specimens which I gathered in VI 1 Pliarmacographia, 616 (1879). E 1360 The Trees of Great Britain and Ireland northern Sweden, near Bracke, and in Norway, near Trondhjem ; all agreeing in the character of the cones, branchlets, buds, and leaves, and constituting, in my opinion, a species distinct from P. excelsa, of which P. obovata is generally considered to be a variety by Schröter and other modern botanists. These authorities have apparently paid no attention to the characteristic pubescence of P. obovata, a matter of importance, as in the genus Picea the presence or absence of pubescence on the branchlets is one of the most diagnostic features in the discrimination of the different species. The cones, moreover, are amply distinct in the two species. P. obovata varies somewhat in the size of the cones and in the shape of their scales ; and two main varieties have been distinguished, which are, however, connected by intermediate gradations. These varieties are : (a) the typical form described above, which is characterised by the scales of the cone being entire on margin ; and (b) var. fennica. 1. Var./enm'ca, Henry. Picea excelsa, Link, var. fennica, Schröter, in Viertelj. Naturf. Ges. Zürich, xliii. 138 (1898). Picea excelsa, Link, var. medioxima, Willkomm, Forst. Fl. 75 (1887). Picea vulgaris, Link, var. uralensis, Teplouchoff, in Bull. Soc. Nat. Mosc. xli. pt. ii. 250 (1869). Finns Abies, Linnaeus, \ax.fennica, Regel, in Gartenflora, xii. 95 (1863). Pinus Abies, Linnaeus, var. medioxima, Nylander, in Bull. Soc. Bot. France, x. 501 (1863). Pinus Picea medioxima, Christ, Flore de la Suisse, 254 (1883). Abies medioxima, Lawson, Pinet. Brit. ii. 159 (1867). Cone-scales, with their upper margins rounded and finely denticulate. Leaves dark green in colour. According to Schröter this variety occurs sporadically in Amurland and Siberia, and is the common form in the Ural range and throughout Russian Lapland, northern Sweden, and northern Norway, occurring with less frequency in Finland, Livland, Kazan, and Poland. Solitary trees with cones similar to this variety have also been recorded from numerous stations in the mountains1 of central Europe, from the Vosges and Jura throughout the Alps to the Carpathians and Bosnia. 2. Var. alpestris, Henry. Picea alpeslris, Stein, in Gartenflora, xxxvi. 346 (1887). Picea excelsa, Link, var. alpestris, Schröter, op. cit. 141 (1898). Abies excelsa alpestris, Briigger, in J. B. Naturf. Ges. Graubundens, xvii. 154 (1874), and xxix. 122 (1884). Abies excelsa medioxima, Heer, in Verh. Schw. Nat. Ges. 1869, p. 70 (not Nylander). Cones 3 to 5 in. long, with scales rounded and entire in upper margin. Leaves short, ^ to f in. stout, very glaucous. Trees with a whitish grey bark, and with remarkable bluish white foliage, which have been found at high elevations (between 4400 and 6400 ft.) in a few localities in the Swiss Alps, from Landbeck in the Tyrol2 to Engstelnalp in the Bernese Oberland, and from Lake Walen to Lake Como. These trees were first investigated by Heer and Briigger on account of the special name given to them by 1 Cf. Christ, in Garden and Forest, ix. 273 (1896). 2 Beissner, in Mitt. Dent. Dend. Ces. 1905, p. 143, describes trees like var. alpestris in the Engadinc. Picea 1361 the peasants, aviez selvadi, or wild silver fir, the common spruce being known as pign. I have seen no specimens, but apart from the glaucous foliage, which is a trivial and inconstant character in conifers, P. alpestris would seem to be identical with P. obovata. A vast amount of literature' has been written on the relationship of P. obovata to P. excelsa, the general result of which shows that a complete series of transitional forms connecting the two species may be found ; but these are only met with in the regions where the two spruces come in contact—elsewhere they are quite distinct and easily recognisable. It is possible that these transitional forms are due to hybridisation ; and further study by experimental sowings is needed to clear up the matter. P. obovata is the most widely distributed of all the spruces, extending over the vast northerly region of eastern Europe and Asia, where the climate is severe in winter and continental in character. It occurs in northern Scandinavia, Lapland, Finland, northern and eastern Russia, throughout Siberia to the Sea of Ochotsk and Kamtschatka,2 and in Manchuria. It extends far to the northward, reaching lat. 67° in the Kola peninsula, lat. 68° in the Ural range, attaining its most northerly point in Siberia on the Yenisei at lat. 69° 5', and crossing the Stanovoi mountains at lat. 64°, where it comes in contact with P. ajanensis. According to Komarov8 it is abundant throughout the wooded parts of Manchuria, where it grows along the banks of rivers, either forming pure woods or scattered amidst other trees. Its eastern and southern limits in Asia are imperfectly known, but it forms great forests in the mountains of Dahuria and in the Altai and Sayan ranges. Seebohm4 describes it as extending on the Yenisei " nearly as far north as the larch, where it is a very important tree for commercial purposes. Its wood is white, of very small specific gravity, extremely elastic ; and it is said not to lose its elasticity by age. It makes the best masts for ships, and is for oars the best substitute for ash. Snow-shoes are generally made of this wood. The quality is good down to the roots, and it makes the best knees for shipbuilding." In European Russia its southern limit is the northern edge of the Orenburg steppe ; and it forms vast forests in the governments of Perm, Vologda, Ekaterin burg, Ufa, Viatka, and Kama, that are either pure or mixed with larch, Pinus Cembra, Abies sibirica, and birch. It appears to be the spruce prevalent in Finland and in the Baltic provinces ; but in western Russia is mixed with P. excelsa, the limits between the two species being undefined, owing to the occurrence of transitional forms. Similarly in Scandinavia5 it is the common spruce in the north, while in the south P. excelsa appears to be the prevalent form. Its occurrence as a sporadic tree in the mountains of central Europe, under the form described as P. alpestris, 1 Cf. Teplouchoff, lee. cit. Korshinsky, in Tentamen Fl. Ross. Orient. 493 (1898), admits that cones like those of P. excelsa are never seen in eastern Russia. At the junction of the rivers Kama and Viatka the woods are said to be composed of both species. Cf. Kihlman, Pß. Stud. Rtiss. Lapland, 143 (1890), on the variation of the spruce in Finland, Lapland, and northern Scandinavia. Dammer, in Gard. Chron. iv. 480 (1888), may also be consulted, as well as the numerous authorities quoted by Schröter, op. (it. 240 (1898). 2 It is a doubtful native of the Kurile Isles, according to Miyabe in Mem. Boston Soc. Nat. Hist. iv. 261 (1894). 3 Flora Manshuriat, i. 197 (1901). * Siberia in Asia, 233 (1882). 6 Cf. under P. excelsa, pp. 1347, 1348. 1362, The Trees of Great Britain and Ireland is peculiar ; but may be explained as a remnant of the pre-glacial forests.1 In habit, P. obovata is usually more columnar than P. excelsa ; but little reliance can be placed on this character as a mark of distinction. This species had not been introduced into England in Loudon's2 time; and it is very doubtful if it occurs in cultivation in this country, except at Bayfordbury, where seedlings were raised in 1908 from seed brought from Siberia by Mr. C. F. H. Leslie. According to Kent,8 "the Siberian spruce soon perishes under the stimulus of the high temperature of this country." Small trees in botanic gardens reputed to be this species appear to me to belong to the transitional form between P. excelsa and P. obovata, which has less pubescence on the branchlets. Plants raised from Finnish seed, procured from Rafn, are much slower in growth at Colesborne than common spruce. In Germany, according to Mayr,4 it is slower in growth than the native spruce, and is not more hardy. It appearsB also to be equally slow in growth in the Arnold Arboretum, U.S.A. (A. H.) PICE A ORIENTALIS, CAUCASIAN SPRUCE Pkea orientalis, Carrière, Conif. 244 (1855); Boissier, Fl. Orient, v. 700 (1884); Masters, in Gard. Chron. xxv. 333, fig. 62 (1886), and Hi. 754, fig. 101 (1888); Kent, Veitch's Man. Conif. 443 (1900); Clinton-Baker, Illust. Conif. ii. 44 (1909). Pinus orientalis, Linnaeus, Sp. PI. 1421 (1763); Lambert,6 Genus Pinus, i. t. 39, fig. a (1803). Abies orientalis, Poiret, in Lamarck, Diet. vi. 518 (1804); Loudon, Arb. et Fruit. Brit. iv. 2318 (1838). A tree, attaining in the Caucasus 180 ft. in height and 12 ft. in girth. Bark brown, fissuring irregularly on old trees into thin scales. Young branchlets pale brown, slender, densely covered with a short pubescence, retained in the second and third years. Buds conical, acute, about \ in. long, brown ; terminal buds girt at the base with a few keeled acuminate scales. Leaves, on lateral branches arranged as in P. excelsa, very short, £ to f in. long, dark green, shining, bevelled and obtuse at the apex, quadrangular in section, with one to four lines of stomata on each of the four surfaces. Staminate flowers, cylindrical, J in. long, carmine red in colour; anther connective suborbicular, minutely denticulate. Cones, 3 to 4 in. long, f to i in. in diameter when closed, cylindrical but tapering to a narrow apex, violet coloured7 when growing, brown when ripe ; scales 1 Christ, Flore de la Suisse, 197 (1883), compares the distribution of this spruce with Pinus syhestris, var. etigadinensis, the pine on the Engadine, which he considers to be identical with Pinus lapponica, Mayr, the form of the common pine that occurs in northern Scandinavia and Lapland. Cf. ante, vol. iii. 573. 2 Cf. Loudon, Trees and Shrubs, 1030 (1842). * Veitch's Man. Conif. 442 (1900). « Fremdländ. Wald- u. Parkbäume, 333 (1906). 6 Sargent, in Garden and Forest, x. 481 (1897). 6 The cones figured by Lambert in this edition, t. 29, fig. b, were from China, and are possibly those of P. ajanensis. Lambert, in his second edition, t. 39 (1832), gives a new and coloured drawing of leaves and cones, collected by Sir Gore Ouseley near Tiflis, repeating also the figures of the cones from China. 7 The scales of young cones are green, with a narrow carmine-coloured margin. Picea obovate with a cuneate claw, £ to f in. wide, rounded entire and slightly bevelled in the upper margin ; bract £ in. long, with a narrow claw and a rectangular lamina, truncate at the apex. Seed dark coloured, £.in. long, with the wing J in. long ; wing broadest about the middle, upper margin rounded. This species is readily distinguished by its very short blunt leaves, and pale brown pubescent branchlets. DISTRIBUTION The oriental spruce is a native of Asia Minor and the Caucasus. It is widely spread in most of the mountain ranges of Asia Minor, being recorded for Troas, Mysia, Galatia, and Phrygia, where it generally occurs between 3000 and 7000 feet elevation. It is also met with in the valleys of the Antitaurus. It is, however, much more common, forming large forests, in the mountains between Trebizond and Erzerum, where it was discovered by Tournefort1 at the beginning of the eighteenth century. In the Caucasus it is generally associated with Abies Nordmanniana, and occurs in Georgia between 2500 and 7500 feet. In the Lesser Caucasus its eastern limit is the meridian of Tiflis, being totally absent to the eastward and in the province of Talysch. As a rule it ascends higher than Abies Nordmanniana, occasionally form ing the timber line at 7500 feet. The largest tree recorded by Radde,a measured, when felled, 184 ft. in height, with a diameter of stem of 4 ft. i in., and a cubic content of 925 ft.; it was 390 years old. CULTIVATION The species, according to Beissner,8 was introduced into Europe in 1837, but Loudon, writing in 1838, speaks of it as not in cultivation; and it appears4 to have come into this country in 1839. It has been in cultivation in the United States5 since about 1850, where it has proved hardy as far north as eastern Massachusetts, and is one of the most beautiful of all the exotic conifers that have been planted in the neighbourhood of Boston. (A. H.) REMARKABLE TREES None of the spruces seems more generally successful in cultivation than this ; and though it does not grow so fast as the common or the Sitka spruce, it is a really good ornamental tree, hardy in all parts of Great Britain, and ripening seed in most places. We have measured many specimens of from 60 to 70 ft. high and a few taller, among which the following may be mentioned :— At Dogmersfield Park, Hants, the seat of Sir H. Mildmay, a fine tree with many cones, 78 ft. by 7 ft. 8 in. in 1907. At Strathfieldsaye a handsome specimen 76 ft. by 7 ft. 8 in. At Highnam a tree about 67 ft. by 7 ft. in 1905. At Penrhyn a tree recorded6 as 58 ft. high in 1891, which was, when measured by me in 1906, 75 ft. by 5 ft. IG in. 1 Voyage mi Levant, 288 (1717). 2 JCaukasuslandern, 223 (1899). 3 Nadelhohhmde, 374(1891). 4 Lawson, Pinet. Brit. ii. 163 (1865). Loudon, in Trees and Shrubs, 1029 (1842) says: "Of late many plants have been raised in Knight's exotic nursery, from seeds received from Mingrelia and the neighbourhood of Tiflis." 6 Sargent, Silva N. Amer. xii. 22, note (1898), and in Garden and Forest, 1895, p. 55. 6 Journ. K. Hort. Soc. xiv. 485 (1892). 1364 The Trees of Great Britain and Ireland In Canon Ellacombe's garden at Bitton there is a dwarf bush of considerable age, which when covered with young cones is very ornamental. From it I have raised seedlings which grow very slowly. In Scotland the finest tree we know of is at Durris, which in 1904 was 61 ft. by 6 ft. 3 in. In Ireland Henry measured at Fota one which in 1903 was about 67 ft. by 6 ft. (H. J. E.) PICEA SCHRENKIANA, SCHRENK'S SPRUCE Picea Schrenkiana, Fischer and Meyer, in ßull. Acad. Sei. St. Petersb. x. 253 (1842); Regel, in Garten flora, xxvi. 69 (1877), and xxix. 49 (1880); Fedtschenko, in Bull. Herb. Boissier, vii. 189 (1899); Kent, Veitch's Man. Conif. 451 (1900); Clinton-Baker, Illust. Conif. ii. 48 (1909). Picea tianschanica, Ruprecht, in Mem. Acad. Sä. St. Petersb. xiv. No. 3, p. 72 (1870). Picea obovata, Ledebour, var. Schrenkiana, Masters, mjourn. Linn. Soc. (Bot.) xviii. 506 (1881). Pinus Schrenkiana, Antoine, Conif. 97 (1840-1847). Pinus obovata, Antoine, var. Schrenkiana, Pariatore, in De Candolle, Prod. xvi. 2, p. 415 (1868). Pinus orientalis, Linnseus, var. longifolia, Ledebour, FI. Ross. iii. 671 (1847). Abies Schrenkiana, Lindley and Gordon, in Journ. Hort. Soc. Land. v. 212 (1850). A large tree, attaining in Turkestan the dimensions of P. obowata. Young branchlets ashy grey, stout, glabrous. Buds dome-shaped or sub-globose, \ in. in length, rounded at the apex, light brown, with scarious scales ; terminal bud girt with a ring of acuminate keeled pubescent ciliate scales and closely surrounded at the base by the uppermost leaves of the branchlet. Leaves in an imperfect radial arrangement, dense and pointing forwards on the upper side of the branchlet, spreading with a few leaves pointing forwards and not truly pectinate on the lower side of the branchlet ; £ to \\ in. long, straight or curved, rigid, gradually tapering at the distal end to a long fine sharp-pointed apex1; obscurely quadrangular in section, with three to four lines of stomata on each of the four sides. Cones, 3 to 4 in. long, cylindrical, narrowing towards the obtuse apex, shining dark brown when ripe ; scales numerous, closely imbricated, longer than broad, about \ in. wide, obovate-cuneate, with the upper exposed part thin and glabrous, concealed part thicker and minutely pubescent ; upper margin rounded, entire, undulate ; bract \ in. long, ovate. Seed, light brown, \ in. long ; seed with wing \ in. long ; wing narrow, widest near the rounded apex. This species was discovered in 1840 by Schrenk, and is widely distributed in Central Asia, occurring mainly in the Alatau mountains and in the Thianshan2 range in Turkestan, where, according to Fedtschenko, it forms vast forests, now rapidly disappearing, as far south as lat. 41°, at 4000 to 8000 ft. altitude towards the north, and at 8000 to 10,000 ft. towards the south. It does not appear to 1 In wild specimens from old trees, the leaves end in a short acute callous tip. * Both Regel and Komarov agree that the spruce in the Thianshan range, considered by Ruprecht to be a distinct species (F. tianschanica), is identical with P. Schrenkiana in the Alatau range. Picea occur in the mountains uniting the Thianshan range with the Pamirs ; and its western limit is probably the Alexandrovoski mountains in Russian Turkestan. Its eastern limit is not as yet clearly known j1 but Przewalski found extensive woods of it, not only in the Thianshan range, but also in the upper course of the Yellow River in Mongolia, near Lake Kokonor, and in the adjoining Nan-Shan range.2 Mr. M. P. Price informs us that its most northerly point appears to be in the Barluk mountains, lat. 46°, where there are a few scattered forests in the higher valleys. He observed this tree at 9200 feet altitude in the pass between the valley of the river Baratala and the plateau of Lake Sairam. It bears the greatest extremes of heat and cold in these regions. Most of the trees, which he saw, scarcely exceeded 50 to 70 ft. in height and 7 to 8 ft. in girth. On a section 2 ft. ID in. in diameter from the base of a tree, which had grown in the vicinity of Lake Issik Kul and was preserved in the museum at Vernoe, he counted 296 annual rings. The wood is used for building houses in Russian Turkestan ; but is of little economic importance on account of the inaccessibility of the forests. In the eastern part of the Thianshan range, where the climate is very severe, and the thermometer sinks at least 7° F. below freezing every night during summer, P. Schrenkiana, nevertheless, forms open woods at about 8000 ft. elevation, which are remarkable for the peculiar narrow columnar form of the trees. This is well shown by two photographs, taken by Baron von Dungern, which are reproduced in Mitt, Deut. Dend. Ges. 1910, pp. 227, 229. He explains the cypress-like habit as due to the fact that the shoots of the lateral branches are almost invariably frozen, soon after their production in early summer ; whilst those of the leading branches, which are later in the season in emerging from the bud, escape destruction by the severe frosts. This species was distributed by the St. Petersburg Botanic Garden after its re-discovery in 1877 by Regel in Turkestan. It has never become common in cultivation. There are two trees at Kew, 8 and 10 ft. high, obtained from Messrs. Veitch in 1882; and smaller specimens at Bayfordbury and in other private collections. It appears to be hardy, though slow in growth, and is very distinct in appearance, most of the branches being rigid and ascending. (A. H.) 1 The spruce collected in Kansu, in north-western China, by Futterer and Holderer, identified with P. Schrenkiana by Diels, Flora von Central-China, 217 (1901) ; and another, collected by Bretschneider, near Peking, similarly identified by Masters, in Journ. Linn. Soc. (Bot.) xxvi. 554 (1902), appear to be identical with Picea Mastersü, Mayr, Fremdländ. Wald- u. Parkbäume, 328, figs. 105-107 (1906). 2 Cf. Koppen, Hohsewächse Europ. Russlands, ii. 538 (1889). Regel, in Act. Hott. Fetrop. vi. 485 (1880), states that it grows not only in the high mountains, but also along the rivers Baratala, Kash, and Vuldus. 1366 The Trees of Great Britain and Ireland PICE A SMITH I AN A, WESTERN HIMALAYAN OR MORINDA SPRUCE Picea Smithicma, Boissier, Fl. Orient, v. 700 (1884); Kent, Veitch's Man. Conif. 454 (1900). Picea Morinda, Link, in Linnœa, xv. 522 (1841); Masters, in Gard. Citron, xxiv. 393, fig. 85 (1885); Hooker, Flora Br. India, v. 653 (1888) (in part); Gamble, Indian Timbers, 716 (1902); Brandis, Indian Trees, 692 (1906); Clinton-Baker, Illust. Conif. ii. 40 (1909). Picea Khutrow, Carrière, Conif. 258 (1855). Pinus Smithiana, Wallich, PI. Asiat. Rar. iii. 24, t. 246 (1832). Pinus Khutrow, Royle, Illust. Him. Plants, 353, t. 84 (1839). Abies Smithiana, Lindley, in. Penny Cycl. i. 31 (1833) ; Loudon, Arb. et Frut. Brit. iv. 2317 (1838). Abies Khutrow, Loudon, Trees and Shrubs, 1032 (1842). Abies Morinda, Nelson (Senilis), Pinaceœ, 49 (1866). A tree, attaining in the Himalayas over 200 ft. in height and 20 ft. in girth. Bark greyish brown, divided by shallow fissures into small rounded or quadrangular scales. Young branchlets grey, shining, glabrous. Buds about £ in. long, spindle- shaped or ovoid, acute at the apex, brownish, resinous ; scales numerous, densely imbricated, rounded at the apex ; terminal bud girt at the base with a ring of acuminate keeled scales. Lateral branches always pendulous, with the leaves radially arranged and directed outwards and towards the apex of the branchlet at an acute angle. Leaves long and slender, about \\ in. long and -£% in. broad, incurved, tapering towards the apex, which ends in a slender cartilaginous point ; obscurely 4-angled, with about two lines of stomata on each of the four sides. Staminate flowers, about I in. long and \ in. in diameter, cylindrical, obtuse, light yellow ; anther connective orbicular, crenate. Cones, 4 to 6 in. long, \\ to 2 in. in diameter, cylindrical, narrowed towards the base, obtuse at the apex ; bright green and smooth when growing ; shining brown when mature; scales about an inch wide, broadly obovate from a cuneate base, smooth, convex, rounded and entire in margin ; bract obsolete. Seed dark brown, \ in. long, with the wing f in. long ; wing spatulate, broadest near the truncate denticulate apex. P. Smithiana occurs throughout the western Himalayas, between 7000 and 11,000 ft. elevation, being common from Garhwal to Kashmir, and also occurring in Gilgit, Chitral, and Kafiristan. It extends westwards to Afghanistan, where Aitchison found it in the Kuram and Hariab district, between 8000 and 11,000 ft., occasionally extending as high as 12,000 ft., where it struggles for existence with Pinus excelsa. According to Gamble, it is a very fine tree in the Himalayas, often attaining a greater height than the deodar, but probably never equalling the latter in girth. Large trees measured near Mundali in Jaunsar were 175 to 215 ft. in length and 19 to 23 ft. in girth.1 It forms mixed forests with Abies Pindrow, which cover mainly the northern and western slopes of the mountains, usually between 7500 and 8500 ft. In these forests the spruce is more common on the drier ridges, the silver fir growing in the moister ravines. P. Smithiana also forms mixed forests 1 I am informed by Sir G. Watt that a tree, recorded by Sir E. Buck, near Nagkunda, measured no less than 250 ft. high. Cf. Frontispiece of Vol. V.—H. J. E. Picea 1367 with the deodar. Grown in dense forest the stems are often free from branches to a great height, crowned by a conical pyramid of foliage with pendulous branches. In this condition, it produces seed at intervals of three or four years, and in small quantity. The rank undergrowth consists of Strobilanthes, small bamboos, rasp berries, balsams, and other plants, which render natural reproduction of seedlings rare and difficult. Clear cutting and artificial regeneration have been found to be the most successful modes of treating these forests. This spruce is attacked in the Himalayas by the aphis, Chermes abietis, which is common on the European spruce, and produces cone-like excrescences on the twigs. A fungus, Peridermium incarcerans, Cooke, often occurs as curious tassel-like orange bunches on the branchlets. The leaves are attacked by another fungus, sEc^d^^lm Thomsoni? (A. H.) CULTIVATION P. Smithiana was introduced into cultivation in 1818 by Dr. Govan of Cupar, who gave the seed to the Earl of Hopetoun, from which the first trees were raised at Hopetoun House, near Edinburgh. It is a thriving tree in many parts of the British Isles ; and though the young shoots are liable to be nipped by frost, this does not seem to do the tree permanent injury. It does not, however, seem to succeed on limestone soil. The tallest specimen2 I have seen in England is at Melbury, where, in 1906, I measured one 85 to 90 ft. high and 8 ft. 10 in. in girth. (Plate 345.) At Carclevv a tree was reported8 in 1891 as 80 ft. high, but when I measured it in 1905 it was 86 ft. by 7 ft. 9 in. At Pencarrow Mr. Bartlett measured a perfect specimen planted by Sir W. Molesworth about 1850, which in 1907 was 57 ft. by 6 ft. 7 in. At Bicton in 1902 I measured one 65 ft. by 6 ft. 9 in. At Redleaf, Kent, in 1907 a tree 75 ft. by 9 ft. had many cones on the lower branches, which rested on the ground. At Walcot there is a fine tree 60 ft. by 5^ ft. At Barton, Bury St. Edmunds, there are two fine trees, one of which was 84 ft. high by 7 ft. i in. in girth in 1904, the other 77 ft. by an inch less in girth. These trees were raised from seeds sent by Lady Napier, to whom they had been given by Wallich, and the seedlings were planted out in 1843. The trees were not injured in the least by the severe winter of 1860-1861, and commenced to bear cones for some years before 1869, having a very abundant crop in that year.4 A tree at Hardwicke House, Suffolk, planted later than those at Barton, was measured by Sir Hugh Beevor in 1904 as 73 ft. by 7 ft. In Wales the largest I have seen, a tree at Margam Park, was 81 ft. by 6^ ft. in 1907. In Scotland there are many good specimens, of which those at Hopetoun are the oldest, having been raised from seed sent to the Earl of Hopetoun by 1 Described and figured by Berkeley in Gard. Chron. 1852, p. 627. * The Picea Smithiana reported in Gard. Chron. 1869, p. 713, to be growing at Shelsley Walsh in the Teme Valley in Worcestershire, is P. excelsa. Cf. p. 1341. 3 Jonrn. R. Hort. Soc. xiv. 488 (1892). 4 Bunbury, Arboretum Notes, 134. VI F 1368 The Trees of Great Britain and Ireland Dr. Govan in 1818. When I saw them in 1904 the best of these was about 70 ft. by 8^ ft. Fowler * states that the two trees at Hopetoun House were planted in their present position in 1824, one being a seedling, the other a grafted plant worked on the common spruce, four feet above the ground. In 1871 the graft had outgrown the stock all round for 2 to 3 inches. The seedling tree in that year was 60 ft. high by 7 ft. in girth at four feet from the ground, the grafted tree being scarcely so tall. Mr. T. Hay, gardener at Hopetoun, remeasured these trees in January 1911, and informed me that the grafted tree is still in fair condition, and measures 70 ft. high. Its girth below the graft is 6 ft. 2 in., and above it 7 ft. 2 in. The seedling tree is more healthy and measures 75 ft. by 8 ft. 8 in. at 4 ft. from the ground. At Smeaton Hepburn, a tree, planted in 1840, was measured by Henry in 1905 as 67 ft. by 6 ft. 5 in. In Ireland this species thrives remarkably well, and there are many fine specimens. At Woodstock, Kilkenny, in 1909 I measured a tree 72 ft. by 8^ ft. At Mount Shannon near Limerick, a tree measured, in 1905, 69 ft. by 8^ ft. in girth. At Fota, Queenstown, there is a fine tree, which was, in 1903, 63 ft. by 8 ft. At Glenstal, Co. Limerick, in the same year, a tree was n^ ft. in girth, with an estimated height of 70 ft. At Bessborough in Co. Kilkenny, a tree, which was figured in the Gardeners Chronicle, May 21, 1904, is, we are informed by Viscount Duncannon, 60 ft. high by 6 ft. 9 in. in girth. Another at E mo Park, Portarlington, was 60 ft. by 8 ft. in 1907 ; and one at Coollattin was 59 ft. by 4 ft. 8 in. in 1906. In the United States,2 the tree is too tender for the climate of Boston, and does not do well even at Washington. There are no large trees of this species in the United States. TIMBER According to Gamble, the rate of growth in India is fairly fast, averaging about ii rings per inch of radius, or 125 years to a girth of 6 ft. The wood is similar to that of the European spruce, and affords excellent planking for floors, walls, and ceilings. It is used for shingles, for packing cases, for building huts, for water- troughs, etc. In some places it is utilised for making tea boxes. It averages in weight 30 Ibs. to 32 Ibs. per cubic ft. The bark was formerly used extensively by the shepherds for roofing their huts, but this practice has been stopped in the Government forests. On account of the expense of transport, it is never likely to be exported. (H. J. E.) 1 In Card. Chron. 1872, p. 76. 2 Garden ami Fotest, 1893, p. 14, and 1897, P- Picea 1369 PICEA GLEHNII Picea Glehnii, Masters, in Gard. Chron. xiii. 300, fig. 54 (1880), and in Journ. Linn. Soc. (Bot.\ xviii. 512, fig. 13 (1881); Mayr, Abiet. Jap. Reiches, 56, 102, t. 4, fig. n (1890), and Fremdländ. Wald- u. Parkbäume, 327 (1906); Kent, Veitch's Man. Conif. 437 (1900); Shirasawa, Icon. Ess. Forest. Japon, ii. t. 3, figs. 19-42 (1907); Clinton-Baker, Ilhest. Conif. ii. 39 (1909)- Abies Glehnii, Schmidt, in Mem. Acad. Imp. Se. St. Pétersb. xii. 176, t. 4 (1868). A tree, attaining in Yezo over 100 ft. in height. Bark different from any of the other spruces, reddish in colour, and fissuring into broad thin loose plates. Young branchlets slender, reddish, with dense short pubescence in the furrows between the pulvini, not spreading over the surface of the latter. Buds ovoid, brown, ^ in. long, composed of a few glabrous scales ; terminal buds girt with a ring of scales ending in long subulate points. Leaves arranged on the branchlets as in P, excelsa, £ to \ in. long, slender, ending in a short cartilaginous point ; rhombic in section, with about two stomatic lines on each of the two upper sides, and a single line on each of the lower sides. Cones, about 2 in. long by i in. in diameter when closed ; violet, with a red edge to the scales when growing, shining brown when ripe ; cylindrical, with an obtuse narrowed apex ; scales, when ripe, spreading from the axis at a right angle, suborbicular, with a cuneate claw, about ^ in. wide, with the thin upper margin entire, slightly erose, or faintly denticulate ; bract spatulate, £ in. long, denticulate at the apex. Seed blackish, £ in. long, with wing f in. long ; wing broadest about the middle, rounded at the apex, outer margin denticulate. This species is readily distinguishable from the other short-leaved spruces by the reddish branchlets, with the pubescence confined to the furrows. It resembles P. orientalis in the colour of the foliage, but is very distinct in the terminal buds, which have a ring of subulate scales, similar to P. nigra and P. rubra. DISTRIBUTION P. Glehnii* was discovered in Saghalien in 1861 by Glehn, the comrade of F. Schmidt on the expedition sent out by the Russian Geographical Society to Eastern Asia. It was subsequently found in Yezo by Maries in 1877. In Saghalien, this species is confined to the southern half of the island, where it grows on the plains and in the valleys, never attaining, according to Schmidt, a great size, being seldom over a foot in girth. According to Mayr, it is probably absent from the Kurile Isles,2 as it was not noticed by him on Shikotan ; according to Komarov,3 it does not occur in Russian Manchuria. (A. H.) 1 The Formosan spruce, identified with P. Glehnii by Matsumura in Tokyo Bot. Mag. xv. 141 (1901), is quite distinct, and has been named P. morrisonicola, Hayata, in Journ. Coll. Sei. Tokyo, xxv. 220 (1908). 2 Miyabe does not include it in his Flora of the Kuriles. 3 Flora Manshuriœ, i. 200 (1901). 137° The Trees of Great Britain and Ireland P. Glehnii attains its maximum development in Yezo, where, according to Mayr, it is much commoner in the west of the island than in the east. In western Yezo it forms mixed forests in company with P. ajanensis, chiefly on the cooler parts of the mountains, the trees reaching on an average nearly 120 feet in height. Mayr mentions a peculiar forest of this species, which occurs on the volcanic Iwo- san (1500 feet elevation) east of Lake Kucharro. In the eastern part of the island, it forms pure forests in the river valleys in swampy situations, which are often several hundreds of acres in extent ; but the trees are of no great size, averaging only 80 ft. in height. This species is known to the Japanese as Shinko matsu or Aka-eso. According to Miyabe, it is rare near Sapporo and only found at high elevations mixed with P. ajanensis. Near Lake Shikotsu at 1500 feet elevation, I found it much less abundant than P. ajanensis, and could not procure any fruiting specimens. A self-sown seedling which I brought from here is growing very slowly at Coles- borne and is now only i foot high. I could not learn whether the wood of the tree is distinguished from that of the common Yezo spruce. Some very broad clean pieces which I saw in the saw-mill at Sunagawa had a close grain and a shiny satiny surface when planed, making it suitable for interior work where strength is not required. CULTIVATION According to Beissner1 seeds of this species arrived in Germany before 1891, from which young plants were raised. It is scarcely known in cultivation in England. There are young plants at Kew, about 2 ft. high, which are thriving ; and small specimens at Bayfordbury and Brickendon Grange, Herts, and in the Cambridge Botanic Garden. It is too soon as yet to form any opinion as to the suitability of this species to our climate ; but I do not expect that it will attain any size. (H. J. E.) PICEA POLITA Picea polita, Carrière, Conif. 256 (1855); Masters in Gard. Chron. xiii. 233, fig. 44 (1880), and Journ. Linn. Soc. (Bot.) xviii. 507, pi. 19 (1881); Mayr, Abiet. Jap. Reiches, 46, t. 3, f. 7 (1890), and Fremdländ. Wald- u. Parkbäume, 335 (1906); Kent, Veitch's Man. Conif. 446 (1900); Shirasawa, Icon. Ess. Forest. Japon, ii, t. 2, figs. 18-29 (I9°7); Clinton-Baker, Illust. Conif. ii. 45 (1909)- Picea Torano, Koehne, Deutsche Dendrologie, 22 (1893). Abies Torano? Siebold, in Verhand. Batav. Genoot. Konst. Wet. xii. 12 (1830). Abiespolita, Siebold et Zuccarini, Flor. Jap. ii. 20, t. in (1842). Pinnspolita, Antoine, Conif. 95 (1840-1847). A tree, occasionally attaining in Japan 120 ft. in height, but usually considerably smaller. Bark fissuring into small scales, exposing the yellowish brown cortex 1 Nadelhohkunde, 377 (1891). 2 This specific name is uncertain, as it was unaccompanied by any description, and cannot be adopted. Picea beneath. Buds ovoid, acute at the apex, up to f- in. long, shining reddish brown; scales closely imbricated, ovate, rounded at the apex. Young branchlets stout, glabrous, shining, pale yellow. Leaves on lateral branchlets in an imperfect radial arrange ment, all directed outwards with their tips curving upwards ; about f to f in. long, ^ in. wide, very rigid, stout, curved, ending in a sharp spine-like point ; compressed rhomboidal in section, with 4 to 6 lines of stomata on each of the four surfaces. Cones, about 3 to 4 in. long, i \ in. in diameter when closed, yellowish green when growing, shining chestnut brown when mature ; ovoid-cylindrical, obtuse at the apex ; scales obovate, with a cuneate base, about ^ in. wide ; upper margin rounded, with a few irregular denticulations ; bract oblong, £ in. long, slightly narrowed at the denticulate apex. Seed mottled grey, about £ in. long, with wing f in. long ; wing broadest near the truncate denticulate apex. The very rigid sickle-shaped leaves, ending in prickly spines, and arranged radially on the branchlets, are unlike those of any other spruce. P. polita is confined to the main island of Japan, having nearly the same dis tribution as P. kondoensis and P. bicolor, extending from about lat. 355-° to lat. 38°, and not reaching the extreme north of the island. It is found in warmer situations than the other two spruces, and, unlike them, never forms pure woods. It always occurs as isolated trees or in small groups, scattered through the broad-leaved forest. It is the tallest of the three, the largest specimens seen by Mayr being nearly 120 ft. high ; and is a much rarer tree, of no economic importance in Japan, where it is known as hari-momi. This species was introduced into cultivation by J. Gould Veitch in 1861, and is perfectly hardy ; but it has nowhere attained considerable dimensions. Kent states that the best specimens occur in Devon and Cornwall ; but the largest which we have seen is one at Highnam, Gloucester, 30 ft. by 2 ft. in 1910. There is also a healthy specimen at Bayfordbury, planted in 1879, which has borne cones ; and another at Hatfield, very thriving. A tree at the Heatherside Nursery, Farn borough, about 20 ft. high, bore cones in 1909. There are two good young trees at Castle Kennedy. A fine specimen at Castlewellan, planted in 1884, was about 25 ft. high in 1907. According to Mayr this species, with P. bicolor and P. pimgens, are the latest to grow in Germany, not opening their buds until June. It is much injured by squirrels, and will probably be of no economic value, either on the Continent or in England. (A. H.) I372 The Trees of Great Britain and Ireland PICEA BICOLOR Picea bicolor, Mayr, Abiet.Jap. Reich. 49, t. 3, fig. 8 (1890), and Fremdländ. Wald- u. Parkbäume, 323 (1906); Shirasawa, Icon. Ess. Forest. Japon, i. text 19, t. 4, figs. 1-14 (1900). Ficea Alcockiana, Carrière, Cotiif. 343 (1867); Masters, in Gard. Chron. xiii. 212, figs. 41, 43 (1880), and in Journ. Linn. Soc. (Bot.) xviii. 508, figs. 7-9 (1881); Hennings, in Gartenflora, xxxviii. 216, fig. 40 (1889); Kent, Veitch's Man. Conif. 429 (1900); Henry, in Trees of Great Britain, i. 89, 90 (1906). Picea japonica? Regel, Index Sem. Hort. Petrop. 33 (1865). Picea acicularis, Beissner, Nadelholzkunde, 380 (1891). Abies bicolor, Maximowicz, in Mél. Biol. vi. 24 (1866). Abies acicularis, Maximowicz, in Index Sem. Hort. Petrop. 74 (1868). Abies Alcockiana, Gordon, Pinetum, 4 (1875) (not Lindley). Finns Alcoquiana, Pariatore, in De Candolle, Prod. xvi. 2, p. 417 (1868). A tree, attaining in Japan 80 ft. in height. Bark greyish brown, fissuring into small scales. Young branchlets yellowish, glabrous on the lateral branches, but pubescent in the furrows between the pulvini on strong leading shoots ; older branchlets shining reddish brown. Buds, about \ in. long, conic, rounded at the apex, without resin, and with few scales, scarious in margin. Leaves, on lateral branches arranged as in P. excelsa, about f in. long, rigid, curved, ending in a short cartilaginous point, rhombic in section, with two conspicuous white stomatic bands on the upper two sides, each of 5 or 6 lines, and two bands of about 2 lines each on the two lower green sides. Cones, averaging 3^ in. long and i in. in diameter when closed ; bluish red with green margins to the scales when growing, brownish when mature ; ovoid-cylindrical : scales obovate with a cuneate base, about f in. broad, thin and faintly denticulate in the upper rounded margin ; bract \ in. long, spatulate, with a slightly expanded denticulate lamina. Seed, \ to £ in. long, brown ; seed with wing f in. long ; wing widest about the middle, rounded and faintly denticulate at the apex. This species, as its name implies, differs from the other quadrangular-leaved spruces, in the conspicuous white broad stomatic bands on the upper surface of the leaf, contrasting with the green lower surface, and in this respect it simulates the flat- leaved spruces, and has been confused2 with P. hondoensis and P. ajanensis. The leaves of the latter are flat and not rhombic in section, and are devoid of the faint stomatic lines on their lower surface, which are readily seen in P. bicolor. HISTORY This species was discovered in 1860 on Fujiyama by J. G. Veitch, who collected cones of it, unfortunately mixed with twigs of P. hondoensis. Lindley, in 1861, described a mixture of the two species, and his name, Abies Alcoquiana, Veitch,8 1 A name without any description. It is identified in Index Seat. Hurt. Petrop. 3 (1866) with Abies bicolor, Maxim. Seeds were sent from Japan in 1865 by Tschonoski. 2 Cf. Vol. I. p. 90. 3 Ex Lindley, in Gard. Chron. 1861, p. 23. Lindley's description comprises the leaves of P. Iwndoensis and the cones of P. bicolor. The type specimen, in which both these are mixed in one packet, is in the herbarium at Cambridge. Picea cannot stand. Maximowicz gave a correct description of the species under the name Abies bicolor in 1866. As explained in our article* on P. hondoensis, seeds of both species were early distributed as P. Alcockiana ; and in gardens most trees named P. Alcockiana are in reality P. hondoensis. This species was introduced into the St. Petersburg Botanic Garden by seeds sent from Japan in 1868 by Tschonoski under the name Abies acicîilaris? Maxi mowicz. DISTRIBUTION This species occurs only in the main island of Japan, where, like P. hondoensis and P.polita, it is confined to the central ranges between lat. 35^° and lat. 38°. It forms part of the coniferous forest, which covers these mountains at varying altitudes from south to north, usually above the zone of broad-leaved trees ; but occasionally scattered trees are met with in the upper limits of this zone. Mayr never saw any trees over 80 ft. in height, though he thinks that it occasionally attains greater dimensions. This species is rare in collections, the largest we have seen being at Kew, where there are two trees, 25 and 30 ft. high, one of which bore cones in 1900. There are also specimens at Westonbirt, Pencarrow, Murthly, Castle Kennedy, and Glasnevin. Mr. H. Clinton Baker collected cones from the tree at Pencarrow in August 1908; and I saw at Castlewellan in 1907 a tree about 20 ft. high bearing cones. The tree at Blackford Park, Edinburgh, mentioned by Kent, was planted about 1882-1884, and measured 20 ft. by i ft. 7 in. in 1906. The gardener, Mr. Small, states that it is late in starting into growth in the spring, and in consequence escapes late frosts. Probably the finest tree in cultivation is growing in Mr. Hunnewell's pinetum at Wellesley, Mass., U.S.A. It bears cones freely, some of which I gathered in 1906, when the tree measured about 36 ft. high by 3 ft. in girth.3 (A. H.) 1 Vol. I. p. 90. 2 Young plants with slender sharp-pointed needles were distributed under this name. 3 Cf. Sargent, Pinelum at Wellesley, 1905, p. 11. 1374 The Trees of Great Britain and Ireland PICEA MAXIMOWICZII Picea Maximowiczii, Regel, in Index Sem. Hort. Petrop. 33 (1865); Carrière, Conif. 347 (1867); Masters, in Gard. Chron. xiii. 363 (1880), and four». Linn. Soc. (Bot.) xviii. 507 (1881); Mayr, Abiet. Jap. Reiches, 98 (1890). Picea obovata, Ledebour, \sx.jafonica, Beissner, Nadelholzkunde, 370 (1891). Picca Tschonoskii, Mayr,1 Fremdländ. Wald-u. Parkläume, 339 (1906). Abies obovata, Loudon, var. japonica, Maximowicz, in Index Sem. Hort. Petrop. i and 3 (1866); Franchet, Enum. PI. Jap. i. 466 (1875). Abies Maximowiczii, Neumann, Cat. 1865, ex Pariatore, in De Candolle, Prod. xvi. 2, p. 431 (1868) ; Veitch, Man. Conif. 80 (1881). A small tree. Young branchlets reddish brown, glabrous, with the apices of the pulvini all directed outwards and forwards. Buds about 1 in. long, ovoid, acute, with glabrous rounded resinous scales. Leaves on lateral branches radially spreading on all sides at nearly a right a