164 PICEA 



Var. GLAUCA, Veitch. Blue Spruce. Forms of P. pungens vary much in 

 the more or less glaucous hue of the foliage. In the variety glauca (known 

 also as Annesleyana, Sargentii, Parryana glauca, and, erroneously, as 

 Engelmannii glauca) the leaves are covered with a blue-white bloom. This 

 is still more pronounced in the var. ARGENTEA and other selected forms. 

 But it is all a matter of degree, and various shades may be selected in any 

 batch of seedlings. To those who admire these silvery trees the "blue spruce" 

 may be recommended as one of the most striking and handsome. This 

 applies to it more as a young specimen ; with age it is apt to become rusty 

 and thin of foliage at the bottom, especially those selected forms that have 

 been grafted on common spruce. 



Var. PENDULA (Kosteri pendula). A glaucous form with pendulous 

 branches, very fine in the nursery of Messrs Koster & Co. at Boskoop. 



P. RUBRA, Link. RED SPRUCE. 



(P. rubens, Sargent.} 



The red spruce is a close ally of P. nigra, but appears to be extremely 

 uncommon in cultivation. It is, apparently, on the average a considerably 

 larger tree than nigra, being usually 70 to 80 ft. high ; it has similar although 

 less persistently downy young shoots. The leaves are quadrangular, \ to f in. 

 long, with stomatic lines on all four surfaces ; they differ from those of nigra in 

 being of a dark yellowish, rather than glaucous, green, and somewhat more 

 slender. Cones up to 2 ins. long, and thus larger than those of nigra ; the 

 scales, too, are entire, or only slightly toothed at the apex. But the most 

 marked distinction between the two is in the duration of the cones on the 

 branches. In P. rubra they begin to fall as soon as the scales open, but in 

 P. nigra they persist sometimes twenty or thirty years. In a wild state 

 P. rubra has a much more restricted distribution than nigra, being confined 

 to Eastern N. America, where it extends from Prince Edward Island south- 

 ward to the mountains of N. Carolina. Introduced in 1755. It has little to 

 recommend it for gardens beyond its interest. 



P. SITCHENSIS, Trautvetter. SlTKA SPRUCE. 

 (Abies Menziesii, Lindley.) 



A tree already over 100 ft. high in Great Britain, occasionally 200 ft. in 

 its native state, bark scaling ; young shoots very stiff, not downy, yellowish. 

 Leaves standing out stiffly all round the branchlet, but thinnest underneath ; 

 to i ins. long, ^j to ^ in - wide 5 prickly pointed; green, mostly without 

 stomata on the upper surface ; silvery, with two bands of stomata beneath. 

 Cones blunt, cylindrical, shortly stalked, 2^ to 4 ins. long, about i^ ins. 

 wide, pale brown ; scales oval-oblong, -^ to f in. long, rounded and toothed 

 towards the apex ; seeds ^ in. long, with a wing thrice as long. 



Native of Western N. America, near the coast, from Alaska to California ; 

 discovered in 1792 by Menzies ; introduced by Douglas in 1831. The Sitka 

 spruce is, above all, a moisture-loving tree, thriving best where the soil is 

 permanently on the wet side. Planted in a moist gully near a stream in Mr 

 Robinson's property at Gravetye, in Sussex, it is making growths 4 ft. long in 

 a season. It also thrives admirably in the wet valleys of Scotland, forming in 

 the open a broad pyramid. As an isolated tree it has, even in Scotland, the 

 defect of retaining its inner branches and twigs after they are dead, and these 

 the outer fringe of living growth is not dense enough to hide. In many places 

 it is over 100 ft. high, with trunks 3^ to 5 ft. in girth. Planted closely, it is one 

 of the most promising of timber trees for moist places. 



