118 DWAEF AND SLOW-GBOWING CONIFERS 



P. excelsa, var. Ohlendorffli, Spath (Cat., 1904-5); Beiss. 



(ii. 234). 

 Syn. : P. orientalis pygmcea, Ohlendorff (in error). 



Buds. — Small, conical, acute, about J inch, light orange- 

 brown or crimson; non- resinous. 



Branches. — Brown; thin, but stiff. 



Branchhts. — Crowded, ascending; very stiff, fine and 

 cupping; spreading fan- wise; tips of branchlets drooping; 

 shining white-yellow; pulvini and grooves strongly 

 marked; occasional pubescence in grooves. Annual 

 growth I to 14 inches, thickly covered with leaves. 



Leaves. — Arranged pectinately; branchlets bare below; 

 leaves crowded and covering branchlet above. Leaves in 

 lower ranks point slightly forward and downward; those 

 above, almost directly forward and rather appressed. 

 Very flat, thin, narrow, and fine ; curving shghtly edgeways 

 towards branchlet from upper third to pointed apex. 

 I to 4 inch; pale yellow-green. 



Beissner (190-234) states that this makes a regular, 

 very compact, globular shrub, with crowded fan-forming 

 branches — an unmistakable P. excelsa form wrongly 

 ascribed to P. orientalis. A thirty -year- old plant in 

 Spath's Arboretum was 1-70 metres high by as much 

 through. A plant at Kew purchased from Spath in 1910 

 is now 3 feet by 4 feet. 



P. excelsa, var. Archangelica, Beiss. (366). 



A compact cone with stiff short branchlets and rigid, 

 prickly leaves ; apparently no longer in cultivation, unless 

 it is one of the coarse Continental forms described under 

 var. pyramidalis gracilis (q.v.). 



P. excelsa, var. pumila, Beiss. 



Buds. — Small — about yV inch; red-brown. 



Branches. — Thick and stiff; red-brown; spreading. 



Branchlets. — Annual growth IJ to IJ inches, at right 

 angles or pointing slightly forward; fan-shaped and slightly 



