SKETCH OP THE CONIFEES OF JAPAN. 



417 



Although the cones of the 



is the end of the midrib. The branches when very young are 

 covered with a rusty down; when old they become smooth. 

 The cones are narrow, tapering, rather more than 6 inches long, 

 with broad, convex, loose, rounded scales, which do not readily 

 separate from their axis, and have at their base, a short, roundish, 

 slightly-serrated bract, which is just visible at the point of inter- 

 section of the lateral scales (fig. 82). 

 Jezo spruce are unlinown, we can hardly doubt that this is the 

 plant intended by Siebold ; at least, we observe nothing at variance 

 with his figure and descriptionj except that he describes the young 

 branches of that species as being smooth,; in the plant before us 

 they are covered with short down, but they become smooth with 



and as he describes those which he saw as having a yellowish 

 rusty coat, the apparent difference is reduced to little. Probably 

 perfectly hardy, but that is not yet ascertained." 



This account was copied, with the figure, into the Gardener's 

 Chronicle, 1850, p. 311 ; and again reproduced with the same 



age 



figure in the Flore des Serres, vol. vih, p. 323. The seeds of 

 tree having been introduced at the same time, a second 



the 



notice of the species, taken from the twigs of the young plants, ap- 

 peared in the Flore des Serres, vol. 

 ix., p, 7, with a coloured engraving, 

 both of a young shoot and of the 



cone. 



In this latter notice the leaves are 

 stated to have been figured from a 

 young plant in the garden of Mr. 

 Van Houtte (fig. 83). These are ob- 

 viously identical with those in the 

 above figure in Paxton's Flower 

 Garden. The cone, however, 

 not be said to bear much resem- 

 blance to 



the cone figured 



m 



Fig. 83. 



that publication, as the readei 

 may see by comparing them. (Fig. 84 is a copy of the latter). 

 It is represented here as a stout thick large cone, growing erect, 

 and with a tooth projecting at the place where the bracts appear; 

 while the other is represented as a long narrow thin cone, as 

 pendent, and as having no middle tooth to the bracts, which 



probably arose 



from their having been abraded in the cones 



from which the figures were taken. 



The last figure also is 

 coloured, the cone being entirely (tooth of bract as well as scales) 

 of a most lovely purplish-blue. It is stated to have been copied 

 from a coloured drawing by Mr. Fortune. 



