PICEA 157 



flexible, dull, slightly glaucous green, with three or four lines of stomata 

 on all four surfaces. Cones i| to 2 ins. long, to I in. in diameter ; tapered 

 towards the top, pale shining brown when mature ; scales with a truncate 

 apex and jagged margins. 



Native of the mountains of Western N. America from Alberta and 

 British Columbia (where it attains its greatest size), south to New Mexico 

 and Arizona. This handsome spruce is very hardy, and thrives better in 

 N. Continental Europe and New England, .where the winters are severe, 

 than it does in places with a mild winter and late spring frosts. It is 

 comparatively rare in gardens, the tree grown under the name being 

 frequently the glaucous form of P. pungens. The two species, although 

 so much confused, are really very distinct. P. Engelmanni is easily recognised 

 by its downy shoots ; its unpleasant smelling leaves, soft and flexible to 

 the touch and not spine-tipped ; also by its shorter cones. 



Var. GLAUCA has leaves of a more pronounced glaucous hue. 



P. EXCELSA, Link. COMMON SPRUCE. 



(Abies Picea, Miller ; Pinus Abies, Linn&us.') 



A tree 100 to 120, sometimes 150 ft. high, of tapering, pyramidal form, 

 densely clothed with branches and leaves ; bark thin and scaling ; branchlets 

 pale brown, usually more or less downy, sometimes glabrous. Leaves 

 mostly arranged in two sets in or near the horizontal plane ; \ to f in. 

 long ; very deep glossy green, quadrangular, with a few faintly defined 

 lines of stomata on each face. Cones cylindrical, tapered at the top, 

 usually about 5 ins. long and i^ to 2 ins. wide ; light shining brown ; scales 

 bluntly triangular at the apex, the end jagged as if bitten off. 



Native of most of the mountainous parts of Central and Northern Europe, 

 but not of Britain, where, however, it has been cultivated for at least four 

 hundred years. Although handsome as an isolated tree and imposing 

 in its height, it is known rather as a forest tree with us than in the garden 

 The best timber comes from places where growth is slowest, like Norway. 

 It is often called "Norway Spruce," and is imported in large quantities 

 from that country as "white deal." In the dry Thames valley it is not 

 often found thriving well. Of a great number of garden varieties the following 

 is a selection of the most distinct : 



Var. ARGENTEO-SPICA. Young shoots of a clear creamy white, approach- 

 ing afterwards the normal colour ; very striking and ornamental. Var. 

 FINEDONENSIS is of the same character. 



Var. CLANBRASSILIANA. An interesting variety of low, dense, rounded 

 habit, usually wider than high. A plant thirty years old will be under 3 

 ft. in height. According to the late Earl Annesley, "it was named after Lord 

 Clanbrassil, who first discovered it in his beautiful demesne of Tullymore, 

 Co. Down, now the seat of the Earl of Roden, and the original plant is 

 still to be seen there." Other dwarf forms are DUMOSA ; GREGORYANA, 

 a dense rounded bush, with crowded branchlets making growths j to I in. long 

 annually, the leaves standing out all round the twig ; PYGM^EA, very close 

 and dwarf ; PUMILA GLAUCA, somewhat similar, but glaucous ; GLOBOSA 

 NANA, similar to Clanbrassiliana in leaf and shoot, but less spreading; 

 REMONTII, shoots erect-growing. 



Var. CRANSTONI, var. DENUDATA, and var. MONSTROSA are remarkable 

 forms, with long snake-like branches, almost without branchlets ; leaves 

 rigid, stiff, thicker and longer (about I in.) than in the type. Of no beauty, 

 and only worth growing as grotesque curiosities. 



Var. INVERTA has stiff pendulous branches hanging close to the stem a 

 curiosity merely. First discovered by Mr R. S. Carrington, of the firm 



