io8 PICE^, OR SPRUCE TREES 



Fir should appropriate the name of Abies, and that 

 the Spruces, as residuary legatees of the only other 

 left in the market, should assume the name of 

 Picea, nothing, we contend, can ever be in a con- 

 tentious world written down as final, or even of 

 passing worth. 



GROUP I 



P. Smithiana, Maximowiczii, Shrenkiana, Pun- 

 gens, PoLiTA, Alba, Bicolor (or Alcockiana) 



P. Smithiana. — ^As far as the names go the ver- 

 nacular aliases (e.g, Morinda) of this tree have — ^with 

 all apologies to Sir E. Smith, first President of the 

 Linnaean Society, and after whom it was named — a 

 far more pleasing ring than the name finally bestowed 

 on it by priority of publication, but not given, we 

 mark, by priority of name as bestowed upon it by 

 the natives and European dwellers before the date 

 1 8x2, when it was described and figured by Dr. 

 Wallich. It is certainly a tree that impresses the 

 memory of the most casual of observers. Its long 

 pendulous leaves, hanging like dangling tassels on its 

 long pendulous branches, are accountable for its 

 home circle and Anglo-Indian name of the Weeping 

 Spruce of the Himalayas. They are as unlike as can 

 be, in outward appearance, to the more ordinary- 

 looking Spruces. Yet if examined closely, they 

 comply with all the requirements of the class in such 

 essentials as pulvini, acicular leaves, etc. 



P. Shrenkiana. — Perhaps the nearest to the 

 above-mentioned in appearance, only with leaves 

 much shorter, pointing forwards, and lying even 

 nearer along the branches than an American jockey 

 ever lay along his horse's neck, is the Siberian P. 



