PICEA OBOVATA. 441 



a very high order, especially on dry soils for which it is totally 

 uri suited. In moist retentive loams where it retains its leaves for 

 several years and acquires a dense habit, the distinct hue of its 

 foliage renders it an acceptable tree for contrast. Besides the many 

 varieties found wild in North America, others have originated under 

 cultivation in Europe, but none of them have any especial value as 

 decorative plants in this country. In Germany, where * the Black 

 Spruce is much cultivated as a decorative tree, more attention is 

 given to deviations from the common form, and some of the 

 varieties as Doumetti and Mariana are, according to Beissner, 

 highly prized. 



Picea obovata. 



A tree 60 80 feet high, resembling the common Spruce in habit 

 and aspect. Branches slender, more or less pendent or depressed. 

 Branchlets pubescent the first year, with light reddish brown bark 

 marked by shallow longitudinal oblique ridges decurrertt from the pulvini 

 of the leaves. Buds conic, scarcely 0*25 inch long, with chestnut- 

 brown perulsB. Leaves four-angled, spine-tipped, 0*5 0*75 inch long, 

 bright green ; OH the upper side of the branchlets more or less 

 pointing forwards at an acute angle to the axis, and mostly incurved; 

 on the under side erect or pseudo-distichous in two three ranks. 

 Cones ovoid-cylindric, approaching spindle-shaped, 2*5 3 inches long, 

 reddish brown ; scales orbicular, cuneate with a narrow claw, roundish 

 or truncate on the apical side ; seed wings oval, about half as long 

 as the scale. 



Picea obovata, Ledebour, Fl. Altaica, III. t. 499; IV. 201 (1833). Link in 

 Linnrea, XV. 518 (1841) Carriere, Traite Conif. ed. II. 237. Willkomm, Forstl. 

 Fl. ed. II. 93. Beissner, Nadelholzk. 368. Masters in Journ. Linn. Soc. XVIII. 

 506 ; and Journ. R. Hort. Soc. XIV. 223. 



Abies obovata, London, Arb. et Frut. Brit. IV. 2329. Gordon, Pinet. ed. II. 14. 



Finns obovata, Endlicher, Synops. ConiK. 119. Parlatore, D. C. Prodr. XVI. 415. 



Eng. Siberian Spruce. Fr. Sapinette de Siberie. Germ. Altai Fichte, Sibirische 

 Fichte. 



Picea obovata covers extensive areas in east and north-east Eussia, 

 whence it spreads eastwards through the greater part of Siberia to 

 the Sea of Okhotsk, and also into Kamtschatka and the Kurile 

 Islands. Its northern limit in Europe is just within the Arctic 

 Circle where it crosses the Ural mountains, the highest latitude of 

 its range, which nearly coincides with the northern limit of arborescent 

 vegetation, receding southwards through Asia with the increasing cold 

 of the climate. The southern limit is but imperfectly known, but 

 is believed to follow the trend of the Altai mountains as far as the 

 Amur region, ascending to 4,000 feet above sea-level, and in places 

 forming extensive forests. 



Willkomm considers Picea obovata to be a climatic variety of 

 P. exeelsa, whose place it takes in the great region over which it is 

 spread. Transitional forms in the size and shape of the cones and 



