THE PINE SUB-FAMILY. 179 



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Picea firma, Gordon ; Abies homolepis, Siebold & 

 rini / Pinus homolepis, Antoine db Endlicher / Abies 

 bifida, Siebold & Zuccarini. Leaves, from % to 1 inch in 

 length, very closely approximated, growing all around the 

 shoot, but expanded in a two-rowed manner, slightly atten- 

 uated at the base into a very short petiole, slightly 

 twisted, linear, bifid at first, glabrous and dark above, 

 somewhat silvery below. Cones, 3 to 4j- inches long, from 

 1 to H inch in diameter, pendent, short-peduncled^ thick, 

 deflexed, straight, cylindrical, with persistent, imbricated, 

 downy, leathery, crenulated, dark brown scales ; bracts, 

 long, lanceolate, or sub-rhomboidal, sharp and keeled. 

 Seeds, wedge-shaped at the base, with broad, transverse 

 wings, and a membranaceous shell. Cotyledons, 4 to 5. 



We copy from Murray the following history of this new 

 Spruce : " This species is found from the south of Kinsu, 

 by Sikok and Nippon, to the Kurile Islands, and may thus 

 be assumed to extend over the whole of the empire of 

 Japan. It grows at an elevation of from 2,000 to 4,000 

 feet above the level of the sea. Siebold informs us that 

 at its southernmost limits it is probably cultivated, and 

 not wild, except in humid valleys or on the mountain 

 Iwaga, near Nagasaki, where it is found at about 1,800 

 feet above the sea." It is a lofty tree with somewhat of 

 the habit of the Common Silver Fir, and, judging from the 

 climate from whence it comes, we may anticipate its suc- 

 cessful introduction into our collections. As with others 

 of the Japanese trees, confusion has arisen in its nomencla- 

 ture, some writers affirming that A. firma, A. bifida, and 

 A. homolepis, are three distinct species. Murray affirms 

 them to be but one, and suggests that the diversity may 

 have arisen from the skill of the Japanese in altering 

 the appearance of many plants in a manner to deceive a 

 careful and critical botanist. In A. bifida, the leaves are 

 bifid at the apex, but Murray states that this is frequent- 

 ly the case with young plants of all three of the alleged 

 species; seeds of A. bifida frequently producing young 



