CONIFEE^E, OR CONE-BEAEIXG TREES. 257 



(as it is equally well known under both names), is not a hand- 

 some evergreen under cultivation, as it soon loses its lower 

 branches and becomes rather a ragged and unsightly tree. 



P. pnngens, Engelm. — Silver Spruce. — Leaves about an inch 

 long, rather broad, rigid, stout, sharply acute, usually incurved, 

 pale gi'een above, and silvery-glaucous below. Cones three to 

 four inches long, cylindrical and pendulous, as in all of the true 

 species, very abundant, with elongated rhombic, truncate 

 scales. Seeds small, with somewhat triangular obovate wings. 

 This species was formally considered as only a variety of P. 

 Menziesii, Douglass, but has recently been raised to the posi- 

 tion of a species, and the Menzies' Si)i"uce placed as a synonym 

 of the next. A large and beautiful tree in Colorado, Wyoming 

 and Idaho, but no where in great abundance. Succeeds admira- 

 bly in the more Northern of our Atlantic States. 



P. sitchensis, Bongard. — Sitcha Spruce. — Leaves a half inch or 

 more in length, flat, with a sharp point, whitish on the upper 

 surface when young. Cones cylindrical, oval, one and a half 

 to two and a half inches long, and about one inch in diameter, 

 pale yellowish. Bracts rigid, lanceolate, and about one half tlie 

 length of the oblong-rounded scales. A large tree, one hundred 

 and fifty to two hundred feet high, with stem five to nine feet 

 in diameter. Yv'ood said to be superior to any other species of 

 the Spi-uce. Peculiar to the Northern Pacific Coast, mainly in 

 wet, sandy soils near streams in Mendocino County, California, 

 northward to Alaska. 



FOREIG^T SPECIES AXD VARIETIES. 



Among these the best known is the Norway Spruce (P. ex- 

 celsa), which has long been a favorite ornamental tree in this 

 country, and probably more extensively jilanted than any other 

 conifer. It is really a handsome tree, and being a native of 

 Northern Europe and Asia, it is quite hardy in all of our North- 

 ern States, except, perhaps, on the western prarios, Vvhere the 

 winds are more injurious than low temperatures. There are 

 an immense number of varieties in cultivation, in fact, more 

 than I can spare room to name, and for this reason must refer 

 the reader to the catalogues of nurserymen or special works on 

 the coniferae, for names and descriptions. 



There are, however, several other foreign species and varie- 

 ties not so well known as the Norway Spruce, but equally 

 w^orthy of cultivation, and among them I wUl name the 



