PICEA 91 



a rather flat-topped round bush not unlike a Cheddar 

 cheese; rarely exceeding 6 to 7 feet in height — if it does, 

 it is usually a beehive-shaped bush. 



This, the oldest recorded dwarf form of P. excelsa, is 

 nevertheless one of the most difficult to obtain ; it is not 

 uncommon in cultivation, but is rarely sent out, or found 

 growing, under its own name. I have received it as vars. 

 pygmcea, brevifolia, compacta nana, and " parviformis,'' and 

 have received under its name vars. pyramidalis MerJcii, 

 nana, etc. Discovered originally on the Moira Estate, near 

 Belfast, in the last half of the eighteenth century, it is 

 said to have been moved by Lord Clanbrasil to his seat 

 at Tullymore, Co. Down, and later introduced by him to 

 England. What is said to be the original plant, or portion 

 of it, is still growing at Tullymore Park, Co. Down, now 

 the seat of the Earl of Roden. The description of the 

 form is taken from specimens off this old tree. It was 

 measured by Elwes about the year 1911, and was then 

 10 feet high by 28 feet in circumference. Since then one 

 side has been encroached upon by other trees, and it has 

 lost some of its lower branches. Nevertheless its diameter, 

 4 feet from the ground, is now 10 feet 1 inch, and its height 

 is 1 1 feet 5 inches. This rate of growth for nine years is 

 unusually strong, and is partly accountable by the fact 

 that portions of the tree are beginning to revert, and these 

 portions had not, at the time of measurement, been cut 

 away. This tendency to revert is noticeable in other 

 dwarf forms of P. excelsa, especially in var. Ellwangeriana 

 (Sargent, " Arnold Arboretum Bulletin," No. 18). At 

 Aldenham and Coles, in Hertfordshire, var. Clanbrasi- 

 liana sent up leaders and became arborescent. Probably 

 the oldest existing propagation of this plant is one in the 

 neighbouring garden of Castlewellan, Co. Down. This 

 plant is described by Lord Annesley (" Beautiful and 

 Rare Trees," p. 33, 1903) as being over 100 years of age, 

 a round bush 4 feet high by as much through. Six old 

 specimens — over seventy years planted — at Abbey] eix 



