448 PICEA PUNGEXS. 



been introduced, and beautiful as it is in its young state, it cannot 

 be said to improve much with age although quite hardy.* 



Regarded in all its aspects, Picea polita gives the impression of its 

 being an archaic form of Picea that has nearly reached the span of 

 its existence, and is now gradually passing away. Its nearest affinities 

 are P. Smithiana of the Himalaya, and P. Schrenkiana of Turkestan, 

 the three species forming a sub-section of the genus, distinguished chiefly 

 by the position and colour of the leaves which are less crowded than 

 in the other Spruce Firs ; by the perular scales and shape of the 

 winter buds; and by the scales of the cones being smooth, with the 

 exposed margin nearly entire. 



Picea polita was introduced by the late John Gould Veitch in 1861. 

 The specific name polita (polished or adorned) was probably selected 

 in reference to the lustrous smoothness of the leaves and leaf-buds. 



Picea pungens. 



A slender tree 80 100 feet high, but occasionally considerably more, 

 with a trunk rarely exceeding 3 feet in diameter, and covered with 

 brownish grey bark fissured into small oblong plates. In early life 

 up to about forty years Picea pungens is furnished Avith whorls of 

 branches at regular but rather distant intervals, gradually shorter 

 upwards, forming a symmetrical tree with a broadly conical outline ; 

 in old age it is described as being generally destitute of lower 

 branches, and with a thin, pyramidal crown. Branchlets stoutish, rigid, 

 with pale yellow-brown bark ; buds broadly conic, obtuse, with light 

 chestnut-brown perulse reflexed at the apex. Leaves persistent five- 

 seven years, standing out from all sides of the branchlets and 

 pointing forwards at an angle of about 45 to the axis, four-sided, 

 straight, rigid and spine-tipped, 0'75 1'25 inch long, bright green, 

 mostly with a distinct glaucescence which varies much in different 

 individuals from bluish grey to silvery white. Staminate flowers 

 ovoid-cyliiidric, more than 0'5 inch long, with anthers tinged with red. 

 Cones sub-cylindric, slightly tapering towards the apex, sub-sessile or 

 shortly stalked, 2 '5 4 inches long; scales rhomboidal, sub-acute or rounded 

 at the apex, conspicuously striated on the exposed side and undulated 

 at the margin, light orange-brown. Seed-wings oblong-truncate, half as 

 long as the scale. 



Picea pungens, Engelmann in Gard. Chron. XL (1879), p. 334. Masters in Gard. 

 Cbron. X. ser. 3 (1891), p. 547, witn fig. ; and Joum. R. Hort. Soc. XIV. 233. 

 Sargent, Forest Trees N. Anier. 10th Census U.S.A. IX. 205. Mayr, Wald. 

 Xordamer. 352. Beissner, Nadelholzk. 346. 



P. Parryana, Sargent, Silva N. Amer. XII. 47, t. 600 (1898). 



P. cominutata of Dutch and Belgian Nurseries (not Parlatore). 



Eng. and Amer. Blue Spruce, Colorado Spruce. 



With the exception of Picea Breweriana, P. pungens is the most 

 restricted in habitat and numbers of all the American Spruce Firs. 

 It occurs on the Rocky Mountains towards the southern part of the 

 range at elevations between 6,000 and 9,000 feet. " Nowhere very 



* The best specimens of Picea polita are seen in che southern and south-western counties, 

 especially in Devon and Cornwall. 



