PINACEAE. PICEA POLITA 37 



Forestry officials inform me that it grows on the island of Kyushu, in three localities 

 in Higo province, and on Nishi-Kirishima on the borders of Osumi and Satsuma 

 provinces, but I did not see it when collecting on this mountain. The species is there- 

 fore distributed from the Nikko region southward and grows apparently always on 

 volcanic soils of recent formation, but it is nowhere plentiful except at Lake Yama- 

 naka. In Tokyo and other places in central Hondo it is occasionally met with in 

 gardens, parks and temple grounds, and the tallest tree I saw was in the grounds of 

 the Suwa Temple at Kamisuwa in Shinano province and about 40 m. tall. 



The pure forest of P. polita on the flat shores of Lake Yamanaka is unique and the 

 most interesting thing of its kind that I saw in Japan, where I did not meet with any 

 other species of Spruce in pure stands of any extent (see Plate XIX) . The forest is 

 dense and from the near distance has a very black appearance. The trees are uniform 

 in size, being from 20 to 26 m. tall and from 2.3 to 3 m. in girth of trunk; they grow 

 thickly together and are pyramidal in outline, although the tops of many are flattened. 

 The bark is pale gray, rough, but not very thick and is shallowly fissured and broken 

 into small thin flakes of irregular shape, which exfoliate and leave behind pale brown 

 scars. The branches are numerous, slender, of moderate length, spread horizontally 

 and are often slightly ascending or sometimes somewhat decurved. The shoots 

 are stout, shining yellow-brown, quite glabrous and change to pale gray in the second 

 or third year. The winter-buds are ovoid, acute or obtuse, chestnut-brown, only 

 slightly or not at all resinous and are composed of closely imbricated scales. The 

 leaves are pungent and spread outward on all sides of the shoot and on lateral 

 branchlets the leaf tips curve upwards; they are stout, dark green, curved, slightly 

 compressed, but 4-angled in section, from 1.5 to 2 cm. long, oblique at the 

 apex, which terminates in a sharp point, and furnished with several lines of stomata 

 on each of the four surfaces. The cone is ovoid-cylindrical to ovoid, from 8 to 10 

 cm. long, yellowish green when growing, yellow-brown to cinnamon when ripe and 

 with age becomes somewhat shining brown. The cone-scales are broad, rounded 

 and have a few irregular denticulations. The wood is white, resinous, fairly close- 

 grained and of ordinary quality, but the tree is not sufficiently common to be of 

 much economic importance. The logs are cut into boards and planking and are used 

 for general construction purposes and also for making cheap furniture. Immedi- 

 ately below the bark the resin is most abundant. 



In Japan this tree is known as the Bara-momi, Hari-momi and Toranoo-momi, 

 the first name in each instance having reference to the sharp, stout leaves. It is one 

 of the most distinct of all the species of Picea and at its best is a strikingly handsome 

 tree. In eastern North America it is quite hardy as far north as Boston, and on the 

 Hall estate there is a specimen 19 m. tall with a trunk 1.5 m. in girth. 



Picea polita appears to have been first discovered by von Siebold 1 and was intro- 

 duced into England by John Gould Veitch in 1861. It was introduced into this 

 country by Dr. George R. Hall in 1862. 



1 Siebold & Zuccarini cite Pinus Abies Thunberg (Fl. Jap. 275, not Linnaeus [1784]; syn. Pinus 

 Thunbergii Lambert, Descr. Pinus, EL preface, vi [1828]; Abies Thunbergii Lindley in Penny Cycl. I. 

 34 [1833]) as a synonym of their Picea polita and this has been copied by many authors. Since this, 

 if correct, would make Lambert's specific name the oldest, we wrote to Professor O. Juel and he 

 kindly informs us "that in Thunberg's herbarium there is no specimen from Japan of Pinus Abies. 

 Thunberg in his Flora Japonica only repeated the diagnosis given by Linnaeus in Species plantarum, 

 but made a slight alteration: instead of 'foliis . . . bifariam versis' he wrote 'foliis . . . bifariis.' 

 This most certainly is of no significance." What plant Thunberg intended to describe must for- 

 ever remain uncertain; in and around Tokyo he must have seen Abies firma S. & Z. and Tsuga 

 Sieboldii Carr., whereas it is very doubtful if he saw Picea polita. His "foliis . . . bifariis" would 

 fit either this Abies or Tsuga, but certainly not P. polita. 



