500 



SKETCH OF THE CONIFEES OF JAPAN* 



known about this tree. We have already in. our notice of Picea 

 Fortuni cleared away the mystification -with which it had become 

 overlaid, and we have come back to the original description no 

 further advanced than when Siehold published it. His natural- 

 sized coloured figure looks so unlike the rough brauchlets which 

 his magnified figure shows, that the first and most natural inference 

 is, that the figures belong to different species, the one perhaps to 

 a silver, and the other to a spruce fir, (Compare figs. 119 & 121.) 

 Further consideration, however, has satisfied us that the whole 

 of the drawings are probably taken from the same plant. We have 

 to remember, that when an author gives figures both of the natural 

 size and magnified, he is not expected to be, nor is he, so careful 

 in minute details in the natural size drawing as in the other. The 

 natural size figure is intended to give the general effect without 

 the details, for which the reader must look to the magnified figures 

 and the descriptions. We believe that this is the practice with 

 all artists except those of the pre-Raphaelite school, and certainly 

 it is the general one with naturalists. Looking closely at Siebold's 

 coloured figure, w^e think we see traces indicative of its identity 

 with the other; we see that the traces of some of the pulvini 

 are those of a spruce, as is the disposition of the leaves, which 

 are placed round the branch, and not spread distichally ; and 

 the mode of growth of the cones, if not conclusive that the tree 

 is a spruce, is at le-ast conclusive against its being an erect-coned 

 Picea, We have, therefore, merely one species of which the 

 general effect and port of the brauchlets is ^iven in the coloured 

 figure, and the specific characters in the magnified figures and 

 description. Thus regarded, we have no difficulty in defining its 

 position among the spruces. It obviously comes very close to the 



Pig. 126. 

 A. Jezoensis, 



Fig. 127. 



> 



A, ^renzlesii, 



Fig. 128. 

 A. Jezoensis. 



Fig. 129. 

 A. Menziesii 



Californian species, A, Menziesii. Siebold's drawing of the leaves 

 of A, Jezoensis would answer perfectly for those of A. Menziesii, 



