100 DWAEF AND 8L0W-GB0WING CONIFERS 



Leaves. — Short — under J inch, radial, pointing out and 

 slightly forward, yellow or dark green; rather stumpier, 

 thicker, and less tapering than those of var. humilis, and 

 abruptly slanting from under side at apex. Two to three 

 stomatic lines on each side. 



This is one of the smallest and densest forms of P. 

 excelsa. Extremely slow-growing, it makes a fairly 

 compact conical, erect little bush, with very short and 

 numerous irregular branchlets . At Kew the best specimen 

 is a compact but irregular little bush, 3 feet by 2 J feet. 

 My best specimen is 2 J feet by 21 inches. 



Var. glohosa nana of the trade seems very near to this, 

 at most only a sub- variety of it ; in habit it is not globose, 

 but broadly pyramidal; its branchlets and leaves are 

 generally stouter and more frequently abnormal; extra 

 stout branchlets protrude from the sides and top of the 

 plant here and there in a similar manner to those of var. 

 nana, and it grows quicker and attains a greater height. 



This is probably the form described by Gordon 

 (" Pinetum," 7, 1875) as var. pygmcea and growing " only 

 a foot high but spreading on the ground " ; and by Beissner 

 (ii. 235) as var. MerJcii, as being similar to var. nanxi but 

 growing "outwards rather than upwards into a wider cone." 

 The true var. Merkii (q.v.) is in reaUty not very close to var. 

 nana. There is no authority for the name of var. glohosa 

 nana, and this var. pygmcea form bears no resemblance 

 to var. glohosa, Berg. There is a plant of the glohosa nana 

 form at Kew, 4 feet by 4 feet; another in Mr. Pack-Beres- 

 ford's rock garden at Fenagh, Co. Carlo w, which, planted 

 in 1 897 when 1 foot by 1 5 inches, has grown in twenty- four 

 years to a roundish bush 4 feet by 3 feet 9 inches. 



Of var. pygmcea (type) the oldest specimens I know 

 are in the rock garden at Leonardslee. Their history is 

 given as follows : Grown in Osborn's Nursery eighty years, 

 then in Veitch's Nursery ten years, then purchased by the 

 late Sir Edmund Loder and grown by him for forty-one 

 years. Age in 1920, 131 years. Six or more plants 



