CONIFERS. 



SILVA OF NORTH AMERICA. 



23 



to the northwest coast of North America, Picea Omorika escaped 

 the attention of botanists until comparatively recent years, but 

 under the name of Omorika it has long been a familiar tree to the 



inhabitants of the region where it grows. 



In 1881 Picea Omorika was raised from seeds in the Arnold 



Arboretum, where ifc has proved hardy and has grown rapidly, 



promising to attain a large size; it also flourishes in Great Britain 



{Gard. Ckron. ser. 3, xxi. 153, f. 14). 

 " Picea Abies, Karsten, Pkarm,-med. BoL 324, f. 155 (1881). 



Pinus Abies, Linnaus, Spec. 1002 (1753). —Lambert, Pinus, i. 



37, t. 25. — Wahlenberg, Fl. Lapp. 256; Fl Ups. 326. — Antoine, 



Conif. 90, t. 35, f. 2. — EndHcher, Syn, Conif. 117. — Ledebour, 



Fl. Ross. iii. 670. — Koch, Syn. Fl. German, ed. 3, 578. 



Abies Picea, Miller, Diet ed. 8, No. 3 (1768). — Spach, Hi^t. 



Veg. xi. 405. 

 Pinus Abies Picea, Muenchhausen, Hausv. v. 223 (1770). 

 ' Pinus Picea, Da Roi, Obs. Bot. 37 (not Linnaeus) (1771) ; 

 Harbk. Baumz. ii. 110. — Brotero, Hist Nat. Pinheiros, Larices e 

 Ahetos, 30. — Reichenbach, Icon. Fl. German, xi. 4, t. 532 {Abies 

 excelsa on plate). — Christ, Verhand. Nat. Gesell. Basel, iii. 545 

 {UebersicU der Europimclien Abietineen). — Parlatore, i^Z. JtoZ. iv. 



62; De Candolle Prodr. xvi. pt. ii. 415. 

 Pinus excelsa, Lamarck, Fl. Fran^. ii. 202 (1778). — Salisbury, 



Trans. Linn. Soc. viii. 314. 

 Abies pectinata, Gilibert, Exercit. Phyt. ii. 411 (1792). 

 Pinus cinerea, Borkhausen, Forstbot. i. 398 (1800). — Koehling, 



DeutschL FL ed. 2, 519. 



Abies excelsa, De Candolle, Lamarck Fl. Fran^. ed. 3, iii. 275 

 (1805). — Poiret, Lamarck Diet. vi. 518. — Nouveau Duhamel, 

 V. 289, t. 80. — Richard, Comm. Bot. Conif. 69, t. 14, f. 2, 15. — 

 Lindley, Penny Cycl. i. 31, f. — Sehouw, Ann. Sci. Nat. s4t. 3, 

 iii. 239 (Coniferes d'ltalie). — Hartig, Forst. Culturpfl. DeutschL 

 17, t. 1.— Fiscali, Deutsch. ForstculL-Pfi. 23, t. 1, f. 13-20.— 



Gordon, Pinetum, 3. — Willkomm & Lange, Prodr. Fl. Hispan. 



i. 17. — K. Koch, Dendr. ii. pt. ii. 234. — Colmeiro, Enum. PL 



Hispano-Lusitana, iv. 709. 

 Picea vulgaris, Link, Ahhand. Akad. Berl. 1827, 180 (1830). — 



Herder, Bot. Jakrb. xiv. 160 {Fl. Europ. Russlands), 

 Picea excelsa. Link, Linncea, xv. 517 (1841). — Carrifere, Traite 



Conif. 245. — Bertrand, Ann. Sci. Nat. s^r. 5, sx. 85.^ — Beiss- 



ner, Handh. Nadelh. 351. — Hempel & Wilhelm, Bdume und 



Strducher, i. 58, f. 28-40, t. 1. 



Picea montana, Schur, Verh. Seibenb. Ver. Naturw. ii. 159 (1851). 

 One of the loftiest of the trees of Europe, the type of the genus 

 and its best known representative, Picea Abies frequently attains a 

 height of one hundred and twenty and occasionally of one hundred 

 - and fifty feet, with a trunk from four to six feet in diameter and 

 wide-spreading lower branches which even old trees do not lose 

 unless crowded in the forest, and which, sweeping over the surface 



of the ground in graceful upward curves, occasionally develop roots 

 in moist soil and send up secondary stems, forming small groves 

 around the parent tree. (See M'Nab, Gard. Mag. xiii. 249, f. 87- 

 92. — Schubeler, Virid. Norveg. i. 416, f. 73-77. — Christ, Garden 

 and Forest, ix. 252.) The European Spruce is distinguished by its 

 dark green lustrous sharp-pointed tetragonal leaves rarely more 

 than an inch in length, yellow staminate flowers more or less 

 tinged with red, obtuse bright scarlet pistillate flowers, and cylin- 

 drical pointed cones which when fully grown are pale green or 

 green shaded with red, especially on the side exposed to the light, 

 ' and at maturity are from five to seven inches in length and from 

 an inch and a half to two inches thick, with rhomboidal incurved 

 scales irregularly toothed at the apex. 



t 



Picea Abies is distributed from about latitude 67*^ north in Nor- 

 way and 68° 15' in western Russia, southward to the Pyrenees, the 

 Maritime Alps, the Euganian Hills in Lombardy, and central Rus- 

 sia. Most abundant in Scandinavia, where at the north it grows 

 at the sea-level, and in northern Germany, it also often forms exten- 

 sive forests on the mountains of central Europe, which it frequently 

 ascends to altitudes of six or seven thousand feet, but does not grow 

 spontaneously in Denmark, Holland, Belgium, western France, or 

 iu Great Britain, Turkey, or southern Russia. 



The wood of Picea Abies, known in England as white deal, is 

 light, tough, elastic, more or less durable according to the soil on 

 which it has grown, lustrous, and pale reddish or yellowish white, 

 with straight even grain and few resin ducts ; it is employed in 

 large quantities in construction and the interior finish of buildings, 

 and for fuel. Its homogeneousness of structure, with its thin 

 medullary rays, makes it especially valuable for the transmission 

 of sonorous vibrations, and in Europe it is almost exclusively used 

 in the manufacture of pianos, violins, and other musical instru- 

 ments, the best wood for this purpose being obtained from old 

 trees which have grown slowly at high elevations. It is also 

 largely used in the manufacture of matches and for paper pulp. 

 (See Mathieu, FL Forestiere, ed. 3, 471.) 



From the resinous exudations of Picea Abies Burgundy Pitch is 



r 



produced. This is an astringent* opaque yellow-brown hard and 

 brittle substance with an agreeable aromatic odor, and is obtained 

 by making in the stem numerous perpendicular incisions about an 

 inch and a half in width and depth In which the resin collects. 

 From time to time this is scraped off with an iron instrument and 

 is purified by being melted with steam or in hot water and strained. 

 Burgundy Pitch, which was well known in England three centu- 

 ries and a half ago (see Parkinson, Theatr. 1542), and was in- 

 cluded in the London Pharmacopceia of 1677, is used as a mild 

 stimulant in the preparation of medical plasters, and in Germany, 

 mixed with colophony or gallipot, is employed to line beer-casks. 

 The wounding of the trees to obtain their resinous product has 

 been shown, however, to be injurious to the timber, and it is no 

 longer permitted in the German state forests ; and Burgundy 

 Pitch is now largely replaced in commerce by artificial compounds, 

 the one most frequently sold being made by melting colophony 

 with Palm-oil or some other fat, opaqueness being obtained by 

 stirring with water. (See Loudon, Arb. Brit iv. 2307. — Guibourt, 

 Hist. Drog. ed. 7, ii. 256. — Fliickiger & Hanbury, Pharmacopceia, 

 556. — Bentley & Trimen, Med. PL iv. 261, t. 261. — Spons, Ency- 

 cloposdia of the Industrial Arts, Manufactures, and Raw Commercial 

 Products, ii. 1679. — U. S. Dispens. ed. 16, 1172. ~ Bastin & Trim- 

 ble, Am. Joum. Pharm. Ixviii. 418.) 



The bark of Picea Abies is occasionally employed in tanning 

 leather ; in Scandinavia the young shoots are sometimes used for 

 the winter fodder of cattle and sheep ; baskets are made from the 

 inner bark ; and from the long slender flexible roots, which are first 

 split and boiled, strong cords are twisted. (See Loudon, l. c. 2304.) 



In the extreme northern portions of the Scandinavian peninsula, 

 in Finland and northern Russia, the Spruce, which there rarely 

 exceeds thirty feet in height, is distinguished from the tree of 

 more southern countries, vdth which it appears to be connected by 

 intermediate forms, by its shorter, thicker, and more rigid and 

 obtuse leaves, conspicuously marked by four white stomatiferous 

 bands, and by its short cones with thin scales rounded and entire 

 on the margins. This is 

 Picea Abies medioxima. 



Abies orientalis, Fries, Bot Notiser, 1857, 174 ; 1858, 61, 199 

 (not Poiret), 



