84 DWABF AND SLOW-GROWING CONIFERS 



and sent them out true, but of recent years the American 

 and British markets have been largely suppHed by Con- 

 tinental nurserymen. Neither the grower nor the importer 

 seems to have worried about the verification of the names, 

 and the result has been chaos. There appear to be a few 

 forms on the Continent, usually coarse and strong- 

 growing, and probably selected as being quicker to make 

 '' saleable sized " plants, which are sent over under any 

 " names " that the buyer may suggest. One form in 

 particular, with stout red branchlets and large coarse 

 red buds, is bound to be included in every consignment. 

 It is close to var. pyramidalis compacta, but usually 

 masquerades as vars. Gregoriana Clanhrasiliana and 

 pygmcea. A few old-established Continental and British 

 nurseries still propagate their own stock from original 

 specimens, but I regret to say that from most nurseries 

 one may as a rule expect to receive few P. excelsa forms 

 truly named. When one is attempting to collect known 

 forms, one unfortunately has to search every nursery 

 that stocks them, and the amount of rubbish I have 

 received has been truly astonishing. One or two forms 

 that I deemed to be lost to cultivation turned up un- 

 expectedly, but as a rule these cheap grafted Continental 

 forms turned up regularly, and one well-known nursery 

 that had first sent me sample branches of the forms it 

 " grew " sent me, on my ordering two plants of one form, 

 two plants differing not only from the sample branch, but 

 also from each other. 



Such carelessness is inexcusable, but one can well 

 excuse mistakes in the identification of some forms when 

 one comes to trace out their earhest recorded descriptions; 

 for instance, a nurseryman might well be excused for 

 sending out practically any dwarf form in his collection 

 for var. pygmcea if he had access only to Loudoun's 

 description of it, for all that he says is that it is " said 

 to be dwarf er than var. Clanhrasiliana " ; and many of 

 these early authorities are equally vague. Beissner in 



