SITKA SPRUCE 121 



accommodated with pubescent evidences, while the 

 Sitka remains equipped with smooth and glabrous 

 stems. The cones of these two are obviously unalike. 

 Around the Sitka the ground is plentifully strewn 

 with soft, featherbed-feeling, light-brown specimens, 

 while the cones of the Omorica are only half the size, 

 hard and dark-coloured. 



We must not leave the subject of the Sitka without 

 referring to the fact that it is reputed to flourish as 

 the Willows by the water-courses. The faculty are 

 strongly recommending the planting of it in all 

 available wet places, and this advice has been carried 

 out largely in Ireland by the Government. This 

 partiality to damp places, however, cannot be taken 

 to prove that as a tree it is incapable of growing on 

 drier ground. The big Sitka here (Stanage Park, 

 Radnorshire), which measured in 191 6 126 ft. high 

 and 12 ft. girth five feet from ground, grows upon a 

 Ludlow rock geological formation some 800 ft. above 

 sea-level. Possibly, if its underground secrets were 

 unearthed, it would be found that a percolating 

 water-spring beneath ministered to its presumed 

 aquatic w^ants. Its large and buttressed base, its 

 protruding-out-of-the-ground roots, are very charac 

 teristic of its kind, and its natural inclination to a 

 watery base. 



P. HoNDOENSis AND P. AjANENSis. — As between 

 the Hondo and Ajan Spruce there exists mystification, 

 and consequently a good deal of botanical argument 

 as to " what's what " and " which is which " has been 

 waged. The Ajan Spruce is the representative of 

 the northern island of Japan, while the Hondo 

 is the representative of the main island of that 

 country. 



Perhaps the question may be set at rest between 

 these two, and the occupation of the controversialists 



