26 



SILVA OF NORTE AMERICA. 



CONIFERJE. 



Spruce-trees appear to be much less subject to the attacks of fungi, 

 however, than the European Picea AUes, on which more than two 

 hundred species of fungi have been recorded. The Spruce Rust, 

 Peridermium abietinum, Fries, of Europe, is very common, in the 

 form called by Peck var. decoloransy on the dwarf Spruces which 

 inhabit the subalpine summits of the mountains of the northeastern 

 states, and its cluster-cups are so abundant toward the end of 

 August in many places that those who walk through the dense 

 dwarf Spruce forests are covered with their orange-colored spores. 

 Peridermium ahietinum, Fries, is considered in Europe to be con- 

 nected with Chrysomyxa Rhododendri, De CandoUe, but in uorthem 

 Europe it has been supposed to be connected with Chrysomyxa 

 Ledi, Albertini & Schweinitz. In northern New Hampshire the 

 Peridermium on Spruce, judging by its range and habitat, is proba- 

 bly connected with Chrysomyxa Ledi, Albertini & Schweinitz, on 

 Ledum Zafi/bZ^um, as no Chrysomyxa has been found on Rhododen~ 

 dron Lapponicum in that region. Besides the species mentioned, 

 the fungi definitely reported on the Ked Spruce, which are few in 

 number, are principally Polypori, among which may be mentioned 

 several varieties of Polyporus volvatus, Peck, and Polyporus piceinusy 

 Peck, which attack the trunks of Spruce-trees, as does also the 

 Ascomycete, Colpoma morhidum, Saccardo. Little is known of the 

 fungal enemies of the Spruce-trees of western North America. 



3 The use sometimes of Picea and sometimes of Abies as the 

 name of the Spruces still confuses the cultivators of these trees, 

 although botanists now invariably call the Spruce-trees Picea and 

 the Fir-trees Abies. Pliny and other classical writers possibly 

 intended their Picea to designate the Fir-tree and their Abies the 

 Spruce- tree, although Pliny's description of these two trees does 

 not make this perfectly clear. In 1586 Camerarius (De Plantis 

 Epitome^ 47, f.), and in 1616 Dodoens (Stirp. Hist 863, f.), used 

 Picea as the name of the Spruce-tree and Abies as that of the Fir- 



tree. Tournefort, in 1719 (/nsi. 585), united the Silver Firs and 

 the Spruces, including the American Hemlock, in his genus Abies. 

 Linngeus, in the first four editions of his Genera Plantarum, followed 

 the arrangement of Tournefort, but in the fifth edition, published 

 in 1754, he merged his genus Abies, including Picea, into Pinus, to 



r 



which he also then referred Tournefort's genus Larix. In the 

 first edition of the Species Plantarum, published in 1753, Linnfeus 

 called the European Spruce Pinus Abies and the European Fir 

 Pinus Piceay following what was probably the classical application 

 of the two names. Du Roi, in 1771 (Harbk. Baumz. ii. 110), did 

 the opposite, and called the Spruce Picea and the Fir Abies. In 

 1830 Link, separating the Spruces from the Pines and Firs, made 

 the genus Picea for these trees, thus reversing Linnseus's use of 

 Picea and Abies, and following that of Du Roi. (See Abhand. 

 Akad. Berl. 1827, 179 ; Linncea, xv. 516.) Endlicher, in 1836 {Gen. 

 260), followed Link in the use of Picea as the name of the Spruces, 

 although he considered the group as a section of Pinus, and Car- 

 rlere and all subsequent Continental authors have adopted the 

 same nomenclature. In 1837, however, D. Don, in the third vol- 

 ume of Lambert's Genus Pinus, disregarding Link's application of 

 the two names, called the Spruces Abies and the Firs Picea. Don's 

 use of the two names was adopted by Loudon {Arb. Brit. iv. 2293), 

 and later by Gordon, and has been in general use among English 

 horticulturists ever since, although in the United States and in 

 Continental Europe the Spruces are almost habitually called Picea 

 and the Firs Abies. According to the rules of botanical nomencla- 

 ture, this use is certainly correct without reference to the classical 

 meaning of the two words, or to Linnseiis's use of Picea and Abies 

 as specific names in his genus Pinus, because Picea is the oldest 

 name under which the Spruce-trees have been generically distin- 

 guished. (See Backhouse, Gard, Chron. n. ser. xxvi. 682, for a 

 discussion of this subject.) 



