24 



SILVA OF NORTH AMERICA. 



CONIFERS. 



Pinus AhieSy var. medioxima^ Nylander, Bull. Soc. Bot. France, 



X, 501 (1863), 



Abies excelsa, var. medioxima, Hisenger, Bot. Notiser,lSQ7,4:9,t. 

 Abies medioxima^ Lawson, Pinetum Brit ii. 159, f. 1-10 



(1870). 



Pinus Picea medioxima, Christ, Flore de la Suisse, 254 (1883). 



Picea exceisay ^ medioxima^ Willkoram, Forst. Fl. ed. 2, 75 



(1887). ■— Beissner, Handh. Nadelh. 356. — Koehne, Deutsche 



Dendr. 23. 



The same form occurs in more or less isolated clumps at high 



elevations on the central ranges of the Swiss Alps, where it is 



believed to have existed since the glacial period, and, with its 



northern prototype, to indicate the close relationship between the 



Spruce of Europe and the Siberian Picea obovata. (See Dammer, 



Gard. Chron. ser. 3, iv. 479. — Christ, Garden and Forest, ix. 273.) 



The tendency of Picea Abies to depart from its normal form is 

 also shown by a number of curious varieties. Some of these are 

 due to climatic influences and others to seminal variation. Of the 

 former the most distinct are the small columnar trees with short 

 tufted branches, stunted probably by the short summers and severe 

 winters of northern Scandinavia and Finland, where individuals 

 with this habit are not uncommon (see Sehiibeler, Virid. Norveg. 

 i. 406, f. 66, 68. — Christ, I. c), and the numerous bushy plants 

 dwarfed by cold which often grow near the timber line on the high 

 mountains of central Europe. (See Brugg, Gartenflora, xxxvi. 

 346. — Beissner, I. c. 357.) 



The most curious and remarkable seminal forms of Picea Abies 

 are the so-called Snake Spruces, with long slender remote and usu- 

 ally pendulous branches nearly destitute of lateral branchlets and 

 covered with crowded closely appressed leaves, and elongated lead- 

 ing shoots. A plant of this character was discovered by Alstroemer 

 in 1777, near Stockholm, which he identified with Linnseus's y Abies 

 procera viminalis (Fl. Suec. 288 [1745]). This is, therefore : — 



Picea Abies viminalis. 



Pinus viminalis, Alstroemer, Vet. ATcad. Handl. StockJi. 1777, 



310, t. 8, 9. — Borkhausen, Forsibot. i. 399. — Roehling, Deutschl. 



Fl. ed. 2, 629. 



Pinus Abies, 5 viminalis, Willdenow, Spec. iv. pt. i. 507 (1805). — 

 Wahlenberg, Fl. Svec. 630. 



Picea excelsa, $ viminalis, Willkomm, Forst. Fl. 66 (1877). — • 

 Beissner, l. c. 360. 



A number of individuals of this character have been found dur- 



■ 



ing the last century in southern Sweden, and others have appeared 



from time to time in the forests of different parts of Germany. 



The best known form of these German trees is 



Picea Abies virgata. 



Abies excelsa, var. virgata, Jacques, Ann. Soc. Hort, Paris, xliv. 

 653 (1853). 



Picea excelsa denudata, Carrifere, Rev. Hort. 1854, 101, f. 7 ; 

 Traite Conif. 249. 

 AUes excelsa denudata, Gordon, Pinetum, Suppl. 3 (1862). 

 Picea excelsa, var. virgata, Caspary, Schrift. Phys. Oek. GeselL 

 Konigsberg, xiv. 125, 1. 15, 16 (1873). —Willkomm, Forest Fl. 

 ed. 2, 75. — Beissner, I c. 359. 



This is hardly different from the Swedish form except in the 

 somewhat more remote branches which distinguish some individu- 

 als, and Sehiibeler, who has given much attention to these mon- 

 strous forms of Picea Abies, does not separate them. (See Virid. 

 Norveg. i. 410, f. 69.) The plants grown in gardens under the 

 name of var. monstrosa belong to the group of Snake Spruces and 

 differ considerably among themselves in the degree of their varia- 

 tion from the normal form of the Norway Spruce. 



Among other seminal forms of Picea Abies is one with branches 

 which, ascending at narrow angles, give to the tree the form of 

 the Lombardy Poplar. This occurs on the Swiss Alps (see Christ, 

 I. c. 252), and is probably similar to the plant propagated by nur- 

 serymen as var. pyramidalis, or perhaps identical with it. Another 

 form which also grows sparingly on the Swiss Alps (see Christ, 

 I. c.) is peculiar in its pendent limbs clothed with elongated slender 

 branchlets which descend vertically. Plants of this general char- 

 acter with branches more or less pendulous are frequently culti- 

 vated as vars. pendula and inverta. Another specialized form of 

 the Swiss Alps, var. strigosa (Picea excelsa, var. strigosa, Christ, 

 I. c. [1896]), has numerous slender horizontal branches clothed 

 with many branchlets which spread in all directions and give the 

 trees the general aspect of a Larch. 



L 



Numerous dwarf varieties of Picea Abies with short crowded 

 leaves are cultivated in gardens ; they are either low pyramidal 

 bushes or cushion-like plants sometimes only one or two feet high, 

 with branches hugging the ground and spreading out into broad 

 mats. (For enumerations of the garden varieties oi Picea Abies, 

 see Carriere, Traite Conif. ed. 2, 328. — Veitch, Man. Conif. 70. — 

 Beissner, I. c, 357.) 



For centuries Picea Abies has been a favorite ornament of the 

 parks and gardens of northern and temperate Europe ; and no 

 other conifer has been more generally and successfully used in the 

 mountain plantations of France, Germany, and Russia, although 

 this Spruce suffers seriously from the ravages of the larvse of the 

 Nun Moth, Liparis monarcha, Linnseus, which year after year, strip- 

 ping it of foliage, has often destroyed thousands of acres of planted 

 forests in Germany and Russia (Schlich, Manual of Forestry, iv, 

 289, f. 149-151). The Norway Spruce, as this tree is always called 

 in the United States, was introduced into this country toward the 

 end of the eighteenth century, and during the last fifty years has 

 been more generally planted in the eastern and northern states 

 than any other coniferous tree. As an ornamental tree the Euro- 

 pean Spruce has much to recommend it in these regions ; it is 

 quickly and therefore cheaply raised in the nursery to a size suit- 

 able for permanent planting out ; it is very hardy and grows with 

 a rapidity which is surpassed by that of only, a few other trees ; 

 it is not particular about soil and position, and young trees are 

 shapely in habit and dark and rich in color. In America, however, 

 at the end of twenty-five or thirty years the trees usually begin to 

 lose vigor, their tops becoming thin and ragged, and it is only 

 under specially favorable conditions and in the middle Atlantic 

 states that the Norway Spruce retains its beauty here for more 

 than fifty years. Except, therefore, as a nurse for slower growing 

 and more valuable trees, the European Spruce has not proved suc- 

 cessful as an ornamental tree in America, and its general introduc- 

 tion here has interfered with the cultivation of more permanent 

 and valuable species. 



12 Picea obovata, Lcdebour, Fl. Alt. iv. 201 (1833) ; III. Fl. Ross. 

 V. 28, t. 499. — Link, Linncea, xv. 518. — Trautvetter, Middendorff 

 Reise, i. pt. ii. 170 (PL Jen.), — Trautvetter & Meyer, Middendorff 

 Reise, i. pt. ii, 87 (Fl. Ochot.). — Maximowicz, Mem. Sav. jStr. Acad. 

 Sci. St. Petersbourg, ix. 261 (Prim. Fl. Amur.). — Regel, Mem. 

 Acad. Sci. St. Petersbourg, sdr. 7, iv. No. 4, 136 (Tent.Fl. C/ssur.); 

 Russ. Dendr. ed. 2, pt, i. 34. — Teplouchoff, Bull. Soc. Nat. Mosc. 

 xli. pt. ii. 244. — Masters, Jour. Linn. Soc. xviii. 506 (Conifers of 

 Japan).- — Herder, Bot. Jahrb. xiv. 160 (FL Europ. Russlands). — 

 Miyabe, Mem. Bast. Soc. Nat. Hist. iv. 261 (FL Kurile Islands). 



Pinus Abies, Pallas, Fl. Ross. i. 6, t. 1, f. G. (not Linnseus) 

 (1784). 



Abies obovata, Loudon, Arb. Brit. iv. 2329 (1838). — Maxi- 



