no PICE.E, OR SPRUCE TREES 



P. Engelmannii. — ^To identify the true Engel- 

 mannii you must invoke two of the five senses, the 

 sense of sight and smell — the sense of sight to per- 

 ceive the pubescence, the sense of smell to detect 

 its rank odour ; and these two accomplishments 

 brought to bear will enable you to pronounce opinion 

 upon which is which of the P. Pungens and P. Engel- 

 mannii ; P. Engelmannii, we reiterate, is pubescent 

 and P. Pungens non-pubescent. 



P. PoLiTA.— To identify the Polita you must 

 invoke the last of the five senses — the sense of touch ; 

 and anyone who can recall the acute experience of 

 the point of a perch's fin ought to have no diffi- 

 culty in making out and remembering the strong 

 spiny-tipped leaves of the Polita. 



Nursery maids, instructresses and caretakers of 

 our well-being in infantile days, were wont to exhort 

 us always to grasp the nettle, a process, if I remember 

 right, they were always more prone to preach than 

 to practise. Had they urged us to grasp the Polita 

 leaves, and had we done so, I feel sure its identity 

 would have lingered in our memories for many a 

 long day after the pain in our hands had subsided. 

 E. H. Wilson describes a forest of pure Polita he met 

 with on Lake Yamanaka, in his 191 6 visit to Japan, 

 as one of the finest and most unique sylvicultural 

 sights he ever contemplated. 



The orange-red branchlets of the tree, with its 

 very pronounced markings and grooves, not to 

 mention the spear-point, perch-fin prickle armament 

 of the leaf apex, ought also to aid anyone in grappling 

 with its identity. 



P. BicoLOR, or Alcockiana. — ^The christening of 

 this tree seems rather after the manner of the naming 

 of the Smithiana or Morinda, a close race for prece- 



