PINACEAE. PICEA JEZOENSIS 47 



In the early summer the yellow male catkins and bright crimson young cones, 

 borne in remarkable profusion, make the tree very conspicuous, but in Hondo 

 generally it cannot be called a handsome Spruce. It is essentially a northern tree 

 which delights in a moist cold climate and a soil rich in humus. 



The bark is gray and broken into circular scales about 5 or 6 cm. broad, which 

 are gradually exfoliated and leave behind gray patches; on old trees the bark is 

 3 to 4 cm. thick, deeply longitudinally fissured and cracked in irregular narrowly 

 oblong plates. The shoots are quite glabrous and shining, pale orange-yellow to 

 yellowish brown and occasionally a little pinkish the first year, becoming slightly 

 darker until they change to pale gray, which on vigorous and healthy branches 

 takes place in the third, fourth or fifth year. Weak shoots and those much exposed 

 to wind may be yellowish the first year and pale gray in the second. The winter- 

 buds are large, swollen at the base, broadly conical, resinous and shining. The 

 leaves are thin, flattened, dark green on the ventral surface and silvery white on 

 the dorsal surface, from 0.8 to 3 cm. (usually 1.2 to 1.8 cm.) long, straight or 

 curved, sharp-pointed on young trees and on adults oblique at the apex which 

 ends in a short acute or blunt point. The very young cones are crimson and change 

 as they develop to green tinged with pale brown, and when ripe they are leather- 

 brown and slightly shining; they vary in length from 3 to 7.5 cm. and are cylindri- 

 cal in shape. The cone-scales are rhombic, erose and denticulate. The wood is 

 white, fine-grained, light and of good quality, and since the tree is plentiful this 

 species as a source of timber is by far the most valuable of all the Japanese Spruces. 

 The wood is used for a variety of purposes, such as boat-masts, planking, for mak- 

 ing matchboxes, luncheon-boxes so common in Japan, and chip-braid. Japanese 

 foresters in Hokkaido told me that it was difficult to reafforest with this Spruce, 

 and in consequence in its stead they were experimenting with the Norway Spruce 

 (Picea Abies Karst.). 



In the study of Japanese conifers this flat-leaved Spruce has furnished one 

 of the principal problems, and in consequence I devoted much attention to it. 

 The synonymy is involved and Mayr is emphatic in his statement that the 

 Hondo and Hokkaido trees belong to two distinct species. In the field, after a 

 detailed and critical study, I failed to detect any real or essential difference, and 

 this view is confirmed by a study of a mass of herbarium material collected at 

 many points over the entire range of its distribution. On specimens from the 

 mainland, from Saghalien, Hokkaido and Hondo I find the leaves straight or 

 curved, oblique and obtuse or acute at the apex. Whether the peg-like part of the 

 pulvinus points forward or is recurved, whether it is straight or twisted depends 

 upon the position of the shoot. This peg-like part of the pulvinus may be smooth 

 or swollen and grooved on the same branchlet, and these conditions are present on 

 nearly every specimen before me. The color of the shoot is the most pronounced 

 character put forward by Mayr, but this again I find inconstant, and specimens 

 from Saghalien and from Hondo have shoots indistinguishable in color. Such 

 pale gray shoots as were figured by Mayr under P. ajanensis can be found on trees 

 in Hondo or Saghalien or on the mainland, but they are the exception and not the 

 rule and are usually those of weak lateral branches or of unhealthy trees. The 

 relative size of the cones as figured by Mayr cannot be considered of specific im- 

 portance, and of the material gathered by myself cones from trees growing on Mt. 

 Ontake in Hondo exceed in size those collected in Saghalien. The largest cone I 

 have seen measures nearly 8 cm. in length and is from a tree cultivated on the 

 estate of the late Dr. George R. Hall; this tree is about 22 m. tall with a trunk 



