PICEA 109 



stiff sharp-pointed leaves are appressed to the branchlet 

 reminds one of the arrangement of a porcupine's quills. 

 It is quite distinct from var. echinceformis, 



P. excelsa, var. Merkii, Beiss. (Jaeger and Beiss., "Zierge- 

 hoelze," 440, 1884). 



Buds. — About tV to J inch, conical, light brown; bud 

 scales rather loose. 



Branches. — Spreading, slightly ascending, tips pendulous. 



Branchlets. — Very irregular in size and quantity; annual 

 growth i to 1 inch; yellow- white ; mostly very fine and 

 flexible. 



Leaves. — Semi-radial or pectinate, branchlets nearly 

 bare beneath, completely covered on top. Leaves about 

 J inch, straight, very thin, narrow and flat, gradually 

 tapering to a long hair-Hke point. Those on top pointing 

 directly forward and appressed; those at sides at angle 

 of 45 degrees, but at the base of each side bud a single 

 leaf sticks out at right angles. Colour shining grass- green. 

 One to three stomatic hnes on each of its four sides. 



A compact, short-branched, roundish, rather low- 

 growing form, growing outwards rather than upwards 

 but forming eventually a low, broad pyramid. 



P. excelsa — Pendulous Forms. 



Beissner (ii. 229) enumerates five pendulous varieties of 

 P. excelsa — namely: 



(1) Var. pendula, Jacques ("Man. des Plantes," 1857). 



Syn. : Abies excelsa pendula, Loud. 



(2) Var. inverta, Gordon (" Pinetum," Sup. 4). 



(3) Var. reflexa, Carr. {Revue Horticulturale, 1890). 



Syn. : Abies excelsa pendula, Croux. 



(4) Var. pendula major, Hort. 



(5) Var. pendula monstrosa, Hort. 



Of these, Nos. 4 and 5 I cannot trace in cultivation, and 

 Beissner does not state where he saw them; their names 

 sufficiently describe them. 



