CONIFERS. 



SILVA OF NORTE AMEBIC A. 



25 



mowicz, Bull. Pkys. Math. Acad, Sci. St. Petershourg, xv. 437 

 (Bdume und Strducher des Amurlands). 



Pinus obovdta, Antoine, Conif. 96, t. 37, f. 2 (not Turczaninow) 

 (1840^7). — Endlicher, Syn. Com/. 119. — Parlatore, De Can- 

 dolle Prodr. xvi. pt. ii. 415. 



Pinus orientalis, Ledebour, Fl. Ross. iii. 671 (in part) (not 

 Linnaeus) (1847-^9). 



Picea vulgaris, var. Altaica, Teplouchoff, Bull. Soc, Nat, Mosc, 

 xli. pt. ii. 250 (1869).- 



Ahies excelsa, K. Koch, Dendr, ii. pt. ii. 238 (in part) (not 

 Lamarck) (1873). 



Picea ohovata is a lofty tree of the size and habit of Picea Ahies, 

 from which it differs chiefly in its short oval or oblong cylindrical 

 cones, with rounded nearly entire scales, and is distributed from 

 northeastern Kussia through Siberia to Manchuria and northern 

 China, ranging northward in Siberia, to latitude 69° 30', and often 

 forming vast forests on plains, and on the Altai Mountains, covering 

 these from their foothills up to elevations of four thousand feet 

 above the sea. 



What is perhaps a form of the Siberian Spruce, with longer 

 leaves and usually smaller cones, of the desert mountains of south- 

 western Siberia, is 



Var. j8 SchrencJciana, Masters, Jour, Linn. Soc. xviii. 506 (Coni" 

 fers of Japan) (1881). 



Picea Schrenckiana, Fischer & Meyer, Bull. Acad, Sci. St. 

 Petershourg, x. 253 (1842). — Carri^re, Traite Conif. 254. — Beiss- 

 ner, Handh. Nadelh. 371. 



Pinus Schrenckiana, Antoine, I, c. 97 (1840-47). — Endlicher, 

 I c. 120, 

 Pinus orientalisj j8 longifolia, Ledebour, I, c. (1847-49). 

 AUes Schrenckiana, Lindley & Gordon, Jour. Hort. Soc. Lond, 

 V. 212 (1850). — Maximowicz, Bull. Soc. Nat. Mosc. liv. pt. i. 58. 

 Pinups ohovata, j8 Schrenckiana, Parlatore, l. c. (1868). — Car- 

 ri^re, Traite Conif ed. 2, 338- 



1 Picea Tianschanica, Ruprecht, Mem. Acad, Sci. St, Peters- 

 hourg, s^r. 7, xiv. No. 3, 72 (Sertum Tianschanicum) (1870). 

 Little Is known of the Siberian Spruces in the gardens of the 

 eastern United States and of western Europe. In Great Britain 

 they grow badly and are often destroyed by spring frosts, while in 

 New England, where they are now growing in the Arnold Arbore- 

 tum, the oldest plants are still too young to give any idea of the 

 value of these trees for our plantations. 



The curious dwarf Spruce, Picea Maximowiczii (Masters, Gard. 

 Chron. n. ser. xiii. 363 [1880]), with very slender acicular spine- 

 tipped leaves spreading on all sides from the glabrous brown 

 branchlets, and minute cones, which was raised from seeds dis- 

 tributed several years ago from the Imperial Botanic Garden of 

 St. Petersburg and supposed to have come from Japan, and which 

 has proved hardy in eastern Massachusetts, is perhaps an imma- 

 ture or transitory form of Picea ohovata, from which, however, it 

 differs in the position of the resin canals of the leaves, or of some 

 still unknown species of continental Asia. 



^^ Saporta, Origine Paleontologique des Arhres, 80. 

 ^* In North America more than fifty species of insects are 

 reported to be living on the various species of Picea, although 

 comparatively little is yet known of those which prey on these trees 

 in the western part of the continent. In Europe Kaltenbach records 

 between three and four hundred species injurioiis to coniferous 

 trees, and a large proportion of these feed on the Spruces, which, 

 however, are principally injured by only a few kinds. Although a 

 great majority of the insects which obtain their food from Spruce- 

 trees are not abundant enough to inflict serious damage on them, 



there are several kinds which are sometimes widely destructive. 

 (See Packard, bth Rep. U. S. Entomolog. Comm. 811.) 



r 



The living trunks of Spruce-trees are not exempt from borers, 

 belonging chiefly to the longicorn group, which also affect the true 

 Pine-trees. Among such beetles are Monohammus confusor, Kirby, 

 and Monohammus dentator, Fabricius, while Rhagium Uneatum, 

 Olivier, infests the dry timber. Larvae of beetles belonging to the 

 Buprestidse also bore into the wood, both living and dead. The 

 greatest damage to the trunk, however, appears to be caused by 

 various species of several genera of small timber and bark beetles 

 belonging to the family Scolytidse. Among these, Pityophthorus 

 puherulus, Leconte, Xyloterus Uvittatus, Kirby, and Xylehorus ccela- 

 tus, Eichhoff, are said to be most destructive, and are credited with 

 causing great damage to the Spruce forests in Maine, New Hamp- 

 shire, and New York. Polygraphus rufipennis, Kirby, and Den- 

 droctonus frontalis, Zimmerman, have been particularly destructive 

 to the Red Spruce in northern New York and in West Virginia, 

 (See Peck, Trans. Albany Inst, Yiii. 294. — Hopkms, Bull. No. 17, 

 West Virginia Agric, Exper. Stat. 1891; Insect Life, iii. 1893, 187.) 



Other species of beetles of the same group also attack both 

 living and dead wood, Dendroctonus rufipennis, Kirby, being said 

 to damage seriously the Red Spruce in New Hampshire and the 

 Engelmann Spruce in Utah. Hylesinus sericeus, Mannheim, Dry-- 

 ochoetes affaher, Mannheim, and Tomicus Pini, Say, are common 

 species, which bore into the trunks of Spruce-trees in the Rocky 

 Mountain region. 



Spruces are not affected by many species of foliage-destroying 

 insects, and few of these are ever abundant enough to do much 

 damage. Several of them, however, are liable to become very 

 destructive, 



A number of species of Saw-flies occur on Spruce-trees, their 

 larvae occasionally stripping the leaves from individual branches or 

 from whole trees. The larvse of various Noctuids and other Lepi- 

 doptera feed on Spruce-trees without attracting attention, although 

 several species of Tortricidae have proved serious enemies of their 

 foliage. According to Packard, the Spruce-bud Worm, Tortrix 

 fumiferana, Clemens, has at times been very destructive to Spruce- 

 trees in Maine and in other Spruce producing regions. Gelechia 

 oUiquistrigella, Chambers, Teras variana, Fernald, and Steganop- 

 tycha Ratzhurgiana, Saxesen, are small moths, whose larvse feed on 

 the foliage of Spruce-trees. Larvae of the Spruce-cone Worm, 

 Pinipestis reniculella, Grote, feed upon and burrow in the young 

 cones, several of them being often partially inclosed in a silken 

 web, more or less covered with castings from the mining cater- 

 pillars. 



Plant lice, like Lachnus Ahietis, Fitch, occur on Spruce-trees; and 

 species of the so-called bud lice belonging to the genus Adelges, or 

 Chermes, affect these trees, particularly in parks and gardens. 

 Adelges Ahietis, Linnaeus, originally found on Spruces in Europe, is 

 now also known in this country, and Adelges ahieticolens, Thomas, has 

 been described as an American species. These insects attack the 

 young growing buds and shoots, eventually causing them to assume 

 on the twigs hollow cone-like forms, within which the insects live 

 during the summer, each apparent scale of this cone-like growth 

 corresponding to the distorted base of a leaf. These abnormal 

 growths are sometimes very abundant, causing much injury to the 

 trees. 



^5 Owing to the popular confusion in the nomenclature of the 

 Spruces of the northeastern United States, which are vaguely 

 termed Black, White, and Red, it is frequently difficult, if not 

 impossible, to refer to different species of Picea, as now understood, 

 the fungus parasites reported as infesting these trees. American 



