PICEA 



163 



decidedly one of the most distinct and striking in the genus, especially in the 

 comparatively long, thick, rigid, spine-tipped leaves standing out at almost 

 right angles to the shoot. It is also one of the handsomest, and in a young 

 state forms a shapely tree suitable for an isolated position on a lawn ; in the 

 adult state the branches are said to become long and pendulous, but cultivated 

 trees as yet show no indication of assuming that character. It is a very 

 hardy spruce, but not quick-growing. The " pegs," or persisting bases of the 

 leaves, left on the shoot are unusually large and prominent. 



PlCBA PUKOENS. 



P. PUNGENS, Engelmann. 



(P. Parryana, Sargent ; P. commutata, Hort?) 



A tree 80 to 100, occasionally 150 ft. high ; pyramidal as a small tree in 

 cultivation with stiff horizontal branches ; young twigs not downy ; buds 

 brownish yellow. Leaves arranged all round the branchlets, more thinly 

 beneath, the upper ones pointing forward ; they are f to i ins. long, stiff, 

 quadrangular, spine-tipped, dark green in the type, with three or four lines of 

 stomata on all four faces. Cones cylindrical, shining, straw-coloured when 

 ripe ; 3 or 4 ins. long, about i ins. wide ; scales wavy, oval, blunt and 

 jaggedly toothed at the apex ; seeds \ in. long, with a wing J in. long. 



Native of Colorado, Utah, and Wyoming ; discovered by Dr Parry in 

 1872. The type is but little known in gardens, where the species is almost 

 wholly represented by the glaucous forms. The green type nevertheless is 

 very handsome usually of slender, pyramidal form. 



