MONTANA BOTANY NOTES 11 



Picea Columbiana, but the tip more needle-like, habit about that of Cupres- 

 sus Arizonicus. The branches droop and the fruiting twigs are pendulous in 

 clusters. It grows along with the firs, some trees being 50 to 60 feet high 

 with us. The branches are very many, rather dense and with many twigs. 

 Season's twigs barely 2 mm. wide, drooping as are also all the younger twigs 

 of 2-3 years' age, very pubescent with spreading hairs, 2-6 inches long, round, 

 reddish yellow, the convex leaf ridges 4.5 mm. long and ending in a dark 

 red appressed and truncate cushion about as broad as long, to which the 

 twisted and flattened leaf petiole, about 2 mm. long is jointed. Leaf blade 

 13 mm. long, 1 mm. wide, entire, flat, with one dorsal groove and low 

 convex back, and concave lower side, very dark green above and glaucous 

 belo-w, apex obtuse and rounded, base triangular-acute and set at an angle 

 to the petiole, smooth. Last season's twigs light-reddish brown, 3-year-old 

 twigs reddish brown, with papery bark splitting between the leaf ridges and 

 flaking up like birch bark, the leaf cushions falling off with them. Twigs 

 that are 13 mm. thick also have reddish brown papery bark scaling up some- 

 what. The older bark scales up like the spruce, but is more shreddy, like 

 the Arbor Vitae. Cones apple green, pendulous on twigs 1-2 inches long, about 

 1 inch long, 11 mm. thick, elliptical-lanceolate, acute, smooth and waxy, 

 but apparently puberulent when young. Scales 13 mm. long, elliptical-oval, 

 with very narrow and reddish and entire margins. Seeds very small, 2 mm. 

 long. Wings 4 to 6 times as long and very thin and rounded. Bracts not 

 visible in the green cones. Wood white and soft and very flexible, with red 

 center. This is very rare in our region so far as known, A few individuals 

 grow at the Hemlocks at the foot of MacDougal peak near Echo Lake and 

 at Swan Lake. It also abounds in the Sperry Glacier region. It does not 

 grow on the Atlantic slope. 



Tsuga Mertensiana (Bong.) Carriere Trait. Conif. Nouv. Ed. 250 (1867). 

 Pinus Mertensiana Bong. Mem. Ac. St. Pet. 6 2 45 (1832). Tsuga Pattoniana 

 Eng. Black Hemlock. Leaves 13-25.5 mm. long, angular, acutish, nar- 

 rowed below, often arched, keeled on both sides, unequal and appearing a» 

 if in clusters. Cones 1.5-2 inches long, cylindrical, 13-17.5 mm. thick. Seeds 

 5 mm long, with an obliquely abovate wing. This has been reported from 

 the Sperry Glacier region, McDonald peak and Bitter Root mountains, but it 

 is doubtful if it grows east of the Cascades. It has probably been confound- 

 ed with the longer coned forms of the above. The Sperry Glacier species is 

 not Mertensiana. 



Blankenship in his additions to the Montana flora quotes Tsuga Mer- 

 tensiana records from various Government reports as occurring on the high 

 mountains. All these records are errors, for Picea Columbiana, whose cones 

 resemble the Tsuga. No Tsuga grows at high elevations in Montana. They 

 all belong to the Middle Temperate life-zone. 



JUNIPERUS, JUNIPER, CEDAR. 



Alpine shrubs mostly, tufted from the root and prostrate or widely spreading 

 with sharp and prickly leaves about 12 mm. long. Berries in the 

 axils. J- communis. 



Not alpine. Leaves scale-like (sometimes needle-like in Virgiana). 



Prostrate or decumbent at base, shrubs, J- Sab ma. 



Trees or shrubs, with distinct and erect trunks. Berries terminal. 



Leaves with entire margins, in pairs. J- Virginiana. 



Leaves with plainly denticulate margins, mostly in threes. J. occidentalis. 

 Juniperus communis L. 1040. The type is a small tree with a trunk, and 

 does not occur with us. 



Juniperus communis var. depressa Pursh Fl. 2 646 (1814). Depressed 

 variety. This is the common form at low elevations growing in the open 

 woods on flats where the stems are many from the root and decumbent at 

 base and then ascending 3 to 4 feet high, forming a kind of bowl shaped 

 mass 6 to 10 feet in diameter. Common all along the eastern side of the 

 Lake in the Middle Temperate life-zone. Occasional in the Sperry Glacier 

 region, especially on the Atlantic slope. 



