160 PICE A 



pointing forward ; they are needle-like, -3- to li ins. long, sharply pointed ; 

 green ;md without stomata on the uppermost side, glaucous, with stomatic 

 lines beneath. Cones cylindric, i\ to 315- ins. long, i to \\ ins. wide ; purple 

 when young, pale brown when mature ; scales blunt at the apex, the margins 

 jagged. 



Native of the eastern Himalaya ; date of introduction uncertain, being 

 first distinguished as a new species by Mr Rehder, in 1902, by a cultivated 

 tree in the garden of Mr Allard of Angers, France, who informed me a few 

 years ago that his tree bears infertile cones every year. A tree at Menabilly, 

 in Cornwall, has produced fertile seeds. The best tree I have seen is in Sir 

 Edmund Loder's park at Leonardslee, very graceful and well-furnished. It 

 belongs to the Omorika group and may be described as having the foliage 

 and twigs of P. sitchensis with the habit of P. Morinda. It probably exists 

 in some gardens under either of these names. From P. Morinda it is easily 

 distinguished by its shorter leaves having stomata on one side of the leaf only. 



P. NIGRA, Link. BLACK SPRUCE. 



(P. mariana, Britton.*) 



A tree 20 to 30 ft. (occasionally twice or thrice as) high, of close, pyramidal 

 habit as seen in cultivation, branches densely twiggy ; young shoots abundantly 

 furnished with reddish down ; terminal buds with a few downy awl-shaped 

 scales at the base. Leaves arranged all round the twig, but thinly beneath, 

 to about \ in. long, slightly curved, quadrangular, with a bluntish, bevelled 

 point ; more or less glaucous in hue, with two to five lines of stomata on 

 each surface. Cones egg-shaped, f to ij ins. long, brownish purple when 

 young ; scales rounded or somewhat bluntly triangular at the apex, and 

 slightly jagged at the margin. 



Native of N. America, where it covers an immense tract from Labrador 

 and Alaska in the north, to Virginia and Wisconsin in the south ; introduced 

 to the Fulham garden about 1700 by Bishop Compton. This is not one of 

 the most ornamental of spruces, but is still pleasing in its dense furnishing of 

 leaves and its large crops of rich purple young cones. It is nearly allied to 

 P. rubra, but differs in its blue-green foliage and in the long persistence of its 

 cones upon the branches twenty to thirty years, according to Sargent. 



P. ERICOIDES, Hort.) is probably a pigmy form of the black spruce, and 

 is a rounded bush with very slender leaves never more than \ in. long, almost 

 heathlike ; young shoots thin, much branched, downy the first two or three 

 years. It has been known in gardens for fifty years, and is probably of 

 garden origin. It grows extremely slowly. Intermediate between this and 

 nigra itself is P. nigra var. DOUMETTI, which has longer leaves and is of less 

 bushy habit than P. ericoides. 



P. OBOVATA, Ledebour. SIBERIAN SPRUCE. 



In its general appearance this species bears a considerable resemblance to 

 the common spruce, having similar leaves and very downy young shoots. It 

 is, however, distinct in the cones, which are smaller (about 3 ins. long) and 

 have the scales rounded and entire at the apex (not jagged as in P. excelsa). 

 It is widely spread in Siberia and north-east Russia, and in places reaches a 

 stature of 100 ft., valuable in supplying timber and fuel in cold, inclement 

 regions. It has' little garden value, being less to be preferred than the 

 common spruce. 



P. SCHRENKIANA, Fischer (P. obovata var. Schrenkiana, Carriere\ 

 Although sometimes placed under P. obovata as a variety this species is quite 



