102 DWABF AND 8L0W-GB0WIN0 G0NIFEB8 



An extraordinary dense form, so densely branched that 

 one wonders how the light ever gets to the lower branches. 

 Branchlets in tight layers, the whole forming a dense 

 head like an inverted cone. Beissner states that it was 

 found in cultivation by Rulemann Grisson at Saselheide, 

 near Hamburg, and described it in 1906 as "a round 

 plate-like, fan-forming form with a dense nest-like mass 

 of branchlets where the leading shoot should be." And 

 later in Appendix (p. 630) he states that two almost 

 similar plants were found wild at Friedrichshafen, IJ 

 metres through — a multitude of dense fine branches form- 

 ing a " horn " {forma convoluta). My best specimen is 

 about 1 foot high by about 2 feet 6 inches through the head. 



P. excelsa, var. pachyphylla. 



Syn. : var. echinceformis, Kew (not Beiss. or Hort); 

 var. ferox, Hort aliq. 



Buds. — Globose or ovate; large and fat, fV inch, and 

 as wide as high. Crimson-brown; resinous; some borne 

 singly as terminal buds, sometimes in twos, rarely in threes 

 or more. Some branchlets end " blind," producing 

 either a tuft of leaves alone, or a tuft of leaves with a 

 minute bud at one side. 



Branchlets. — Annual growth 1 inch to IJ inches; very 

 short, thick, and stout; shining orange-brown. 



Leaves. — About |- inch, very dark shining green, mostly 

 radial, appearing closer set than they are in reality owing 

 to their disproportionate thickness and size. Very thick, 

 nearly tV inch in diameter, two round and two flat surfaces 

 with eight to ten stomatic lines on each. Leaves all 

 point forward at a very acute angle — almost appressed — 

 and are slightly falcate, fairly uniform in width with 

 abrupt very blunt apex. 



This is one of the most distinct forms produced by 

 P. excelsa. There is a plant of it at Kew — a low loose 

 irregular bush 2 feet by IJ feet, about fifteen years 

 planted. Origin unknown. I have only small plants of it. 



