20 SILVA OF NORTH AMERICA. conifer js. 



J 



L 



r 



usually much shorter than the quickly accrescent scales. Fruits ovoid or oblong-cylindrical pendulous 

 sessile or short-stalked cones maturing in one season, crowded on the topmost branches, or on some 

 species scattered over the upper half o£ the tree, deciduous during the first winter or persistent on 

 the branch for many years, their scales obovate, rounded above with entire or denticulate margins, or 

 oblong and often more or less narrowed to both ends, with nearly entire, dentate, erose or laciniate 

 margins, much longer than their bracts, gradually decreasing in size to the two ends of the cone, 

 the upper and lower usually sterile, persistent on the axis of the cone after the escape of the seeds. 

 Seeds geminate, reversed, attached at the base in shallow depressions on the inner face of the cone- 

 scales, ovoid or oblong, full and rounded on the sides, usually acute at the base, in falling bearing away 

 portions of the membranaceous lining of the scale, forming oblong wing-like attachments longer than 

 the seeds, and inclosing them except on their upper side ; testa of two coats, the outer crustaceous, 

 light or dark brown, the inner membranaceous, pale chestnut-brown and lustrous. Embryo axile in 

 conspicuous fleshy albumen , cotyledons from four to fifteen, and, like the primary leaves, denticulate 

 on the margins.^ 



Picea, which often forms great forests on boreal plains and high mountain slopes, is widely 

 distributed through the colder and temperate regions of the northern hemisphere, ranging from the 

 Arctic Circle to the high slopes of the southern Appalachian Mountains, and to New Mexico and 

 Arizona in the ^ New World, and in the Old World to central and southeastern Europe, the Caucasus, 

 the Himalayas, and Japan. Sixteen species are now usually recognized, but it is not improbable that 

 a more accurate knowledge of the Spruce-trees of northeastern continental Asia than it is now 

 possible to obtain may increase the number. The forests of North America contain seven species ; 



of these one species crosses the northern part of the continent from the shores of the Atlantic Ocean 

 to those of Behring Sea ; another ranges from the east to beyond the Eocky Mountains ; one species 

 is pecuKar to the Appalachian Mountain system ; two species belong to the silva of the Eocky 

 Mountains ; another Is confined to the northwest coast, and one, probably the least widely distributed 

 of the whole genus, grows only on a few of the high mountains of northern California and southern 

 Oregon. In Japan Picea bicolor^ and Picea Torano^ are scattered, usually singly, through the 

 forests of Beeches and Oaks which cover the mountains of central Hondo. Picea Jezoensis ® ranges 

 from southern Yezo to the coast of Manchuria, and Picea Glehni ^ also reaches Yezo from the north. 

 On the temperate Himalayas Picea Smithiana ^ forms gTeat forests, and on many of the mountains 

 of Asia Minor and on the Caucasus is replaced by Picea orientalis ;^ farther westward Picea Omoriha^^ 

 represents the genus on the Balkan ranges; and In western Europe Picea Abies^^ is a common 

 inhabitant of mountain forests, and at the north often covers great plains, while in northern Asia its 

 place is taken by Picea ohovataP The type is an ancient one, and Spruces very similar to those 

 now living inhabited Europe during the miocene period.^^ 



Picea, which contains some of the most valuable timber-trees in the northern hemisphere, produces 

 soft straight-grained pale wood and resinous exudations sometimes used In medicine. Many of the 

 species, which can be easily raised from seeds and generally grow rapidly, are used to decorate the 

 parks and gardens of all northern countries. 



Picea is often seriously injured by insects/* and is subject to a number of fungal dlseases.^^ 

 Picea, which was probably the classical name of the Spruce, was first used by Link as the generic 

 name of the Spruces as the genus is now limited.^*^ 



1 Henry, Nov. Act Cms. Leap. xlx. 97, 1. 13. be grouped in two sections, as suggested by Engelmann {Gard. 



3 Androgynous flowers of Picea Abies have been noticed by Chron. n. ser. xi. 334 [1879]), and by Willkomm {Forst.Fl ed. 2, 



Masters ( Vegetable Teratology, 192), and a similar phenomenon 66 [1887]) : — 



lias been found by J, G. Jack on two plants of Picea Canadensis. Eupicea. Leaves tetragonal, stomatiferous on all sides. 



(See Garden and Forest, viii. 222, f . 33, 1.) Omorika. Leaves flattened, usually stomatiferous only on the 



5 The species of Picea with tetragonal and with flat leaves may upper side. 



