444 



PICEA. OKIENTALIS. 



The botanical history and geographical distribution of the Oriental 

 Spruce is only to be gleaned from a few scattered records by 

 explorers of the region over which it is spread, commencing from 

 the early part of the eighteenth century. It was first detected by 

 Tournefort on the mountains south-east of Trebizond, where it is 

 still abundant, and a brief description of it is given in his " Voyages, 5 ' 



published in 1717. After 

 a long interval followed 

 the Russian botanists sent 

 to explore the Caucasian 

 region, the earliest of whom 

 was Pallas, who described 

 the tree in his " Flora 

 Rossica " as Pinus Picea, 

 thus mistaking it for the 

 European Spruce, but 

 Bieberstein some years later 

 recognised it as a distinct 

 species under Tournefort 's 

 name of Pinus oricntalis. 

 It was described by London 

 in the "Arboretum et Fruti- 

 cetum Britannicum" as an 

 unintroduced species at the 

 date of publication of that 

 work (1838), but it is 

 supposed to have been in- 

 troduced into Great Britain 

 two or three years after- 

 wards. Subsequent explora- 

 tions of the Caucasian region 

 show that the geographical 

 range of Picea onentalis is 

 almost conterminous with 

 that of Abies Nordmanniana 

 with which it is in many 



places associated, but it ascends to a higher altitude. Its western limit 

 is on the mountains south-east of Trebizond whence it spreads over 

 the whole mountainous region bounded on the north by the high 

 chain of Caucasus proper, as far east as Tiflis, its further spread in 

 that direction being prevented by the arid climate of the steppes 

 of eastern Georgia. On all the mountains it has a vertical range 

 varying from 2,000 to 6,000 feet above sea-level, always ascending to 



Fig. 109. Picea orientalis. Brauchlet with 

 staminate flowers. 



(From the Gardeners' Chronicle.) 



