p. BICOLOR AND ALCOCKIANA lii 



dence between a human celebrity and a vernacular 

 or a descriptive rendering of title. In both cases, 

 some even modern authorities call it the one, others 

 the other, a state of affairs which offers to all a happy 

 and unconcerned freedom of tongue in any discussion 

 that may arise upon it. 



The name Bicolor was bestowed upon it because 

 it broke away from the traditions of the true Spruces, 

 and exliibited conspicuous white bands of stomata 

 upon only half of its surfaces (for it is a four- 

 angled-leaf tree) ; on the other halves the stomata, 

 though they ar^ there, are sufficiently invisible to 

 render a green effect. These white and green effects 

 are — it must be presumed — responsible for the Bi- 

 color name. If this were not sufficient, the marked 

 contrast of colour, as between the creamy or pale 

 primrose-white shoots of the year, and the dark-red, 

 cherrj^-coloured shoots of that preceding, carries on 

 the " of two colours " name and tradition with great 

 emphasis, and suggests a colour scheme of as marked 

 a contrast as that between the red flank and white 

 face of a prize Hereford cow. 



Upon man}' descriptive points in writing the P. 

 Bicolor and our Common Spruce read much alike. 

 The stomata differences do not conve}' any very 

 illuminating clue to the ordinary obserA'er, even 

 under the microscope. It is this dense, close-crowded 

 foxtail growth of the leaves that makes you aware 

 you are looking at something out of the common 

 in the Spruce line. Possibly it may look like our 

 old friend, the P. Excelsa, at the first glance, 

 but a second look shows 3'ou a new face of foreign 

 features. 



Most of the trees that lay a claim to the name 

 Bicolor, or Alcockiana, are in reality Hondoensis, 

 and this is due to some such dull and sublunary 

 prosaic mistake as a luggage label going wTong in a 



