134 HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY OF NEW YORK. 



portion those plants are located which prefer moisture. In this 

 area have been grown for the past three or four years the fol- 

 lowing: Picea Ajanensis, P. Engelmannii, P. excelsa and many 

 of its horticultural forms^ P. Mariana, P. Maximowiczii, P. 

 Omorika, P. orientalis, P. pungens and its horticultural varie- 

 ties glauca and pendula, P. polita, P. Sitchensis, and P. Smithi- 

 ana. From our own country come P. Engelmannii, P. [Mari- 

 ana, P. Sitchensis, and P. pungens. Of these the black spruce, 

 P. Mariana, is the only eastern representative which has been 

 grown in the pinetum. It is not entirely at home, although 

 removed but a few miles from a region where it is wild, the 

 unstable temperature of winter here, with the alternate thawing 

 and freezing, apparently not suiting it. The other two referred 

 to are from the west, and are more satisfactory. This is espe- 

 cially true of P. pungens and its varieties. This tree is found 

 at elevations from 6,500 to 10,000 feet in the Rockies in Colorado, 

 eastern Utah, and as far north as Wyoming. It is one of the 

 most desirable American conifers for this latitude, making a fine 

 appearance at all times, not browning in the least during the 

 winters, and in the early summer the glaucous foliage of the 

 young shoots, which is much intensified in the variety glauca, 

 gives a beautiful grey-blue tinge to the whole tree. Picea Engel- 

 mannii, reaching its perfection much further north, where con- 

 ditions are quite different from those prevailing here, is hardy, 

 but does not present that vigorous appearance presented by P. 

 pungens. It grows at an altitude of about 5,000 feet in its 

 northern limit. Alberta and British Columbia, to about 11,500 

 feet in its southern limit, northern New ^Mexico and Arizona. 

 In the region where P. pungens is at home, therefore, it grows 

 at an altitude of 1,500 to 2,000 feet higher than that species. 

 This could easily account for the difference in adaptability to 

 this climate. Picea Sitchensis of the northwest coast of North 

 America attains its best development near the sea. That it is 

 not a success in this latitude is not a cause for wonder, the drier 

 conditions here proving a severe check to it. Picea excelsa, 

 widely distributed in Europe, excepting the extreme southern 

 portions, does very well. This has been so long in cultivation 

 that little need be said about it. In Norway, in latitude 63°, 



