PICEA SCHRENKIANA. 451 



owing to the want of more definite characters to establish satisfactorily 

 its specific rank. The characters chiefly relied on to distinguish 

 specifically P. rulra from P. nitjm are : the larger size and different 

 shape of the staminate flowers of the first named ; the leaves of the 

 Red Spruce are the longer of the two, and dark lustrous green, whilst 

 those of the Black Spruce have a bluish tinge and are frequently 

 very glaucous : the Red Spruce is the larger tree, growing only on 

 well-drained hill-sides, whilst the Black Spruce inhabits wet sphagnum- 

 covered bogs. Very little is known of the Red Spruce in Great 

 Britain ; the few specimens that are pointed out as such, are 

 half-denuded, unsightly-looking objects that afford no certain data for 

 identification.* 



Picea Schrenkiana. 



A tall tree with pendulous branches and branchlets much resembling 

 Picea Smithiana in habit and aspect. In Great Britain the branchlets 

 of the young trees are somewhat rigid, more like those of P. polita 

 with the bark, buds and foliage of P. SmitTiiana. Leaves acicular- 

 linear, obscurely four-angled, with a short callous tip, somewhat rigid, 

 straight or falcately curved, O75 1 inch long, pointing forwards 

 on all sides at an angle of about 45 to the axis, and darker in 

 colour than those of P. Smithiana and P. polita. Cones cylindric, 

 obtuse, 3'5 4 inches long and 1 -1-25 inch in diameter, dark 

 lustrous brown ; scales obovate-cnneate with entire margin, convex on 

 the dorsal side.f 



Picea Schrenkiana, Fischer and Meyer in Bull, de 1'Acad. St. Petersb. X. 253 (1842). 

 Beissner, Nadelholzk. 371. 



P. obovata var. Schrenkiana, Carriere, Traite Conif. ed. II. 338. Masters in 

 Journ. Linn. Soc. XVIII. 



Abies Schrenkiana, Gordon, Pinet. ed. II. 18. 



Pinus Schrenkiana, Endlicher, Synops. Conif. 120. 



P. obovata var. Schrenkiana, Parlatore, D. C. Prodr. XVI. 415. 



The Spruce Fir originally named Picea Schrenkiana by Fischer and 

 Meyer was discovered by Schrenk in the Siberian Kirghiz about 

 the year 1841. The Fir described above, which is also that 

 described by Beissner as P. Schrenkiana, was detected by Dr. Albert 

 Icegel nearly forty years afterwards on the Thian-Schan and Ala-tan 

 mountains in southern Turkestan. Cones and seeds of the Turkestan 

 tree were sent to the Imperial Botanic Garden at St. Petersburg, 

 whence seeds and plants were subsequently distributed among several 

 European gardens, and the young trees both in Great Britain and 

 Germany possess the characteristics described above. 



Schrenk's original discovery is stated by Fischer and Meyer to be 

 closely allied to the Siberian Picea obovata and was referred to it as a 



* There are two large trees at Dropniore labelled Picea rubra so like P. excelsa that, in 

 the absence of cones, their identification is involved in some doubt. 



t Fresh specimens of branchlets with buds and foliage were communicated from the 

 Veitchian nursery at Coombe Wood, and by Mr. Spiith from his nursery at Baumschuleweg, 

 near Berlin. Cones gathered by Dr. Albert Regel in Turkestan were presented to Messrs. 

 Veitch by the late Dr. Ed. Regel. 



