452 PICE A SITCHEXSIS. 



variety by Carriere and Parlatore. But the nearest affinity- of the- 

 Turkestan tree as indicated by the young specimens in cultivation is 

 so obviously the Himalayan J'. SrnitJiiana that it is extremely doubtful 

 whether it is the same species as the original P. Schrenldana of Fischer- 

 and Meyer.* Should proof be hereafter forthcoming that this surmise 

 is correct, it is clear that the Turkestan tree must have another name,, 

 and no more appropriate one could be found than P. Rec/eliana which 

 would commemorate both the discoverer and his father, the excellent 

 botanist who so long and successfully directed the Imperial Botanic 

 Garden at St. Petersburg. It will be noted that the geographical 

 position of the two forms favours what is here stated respecting their 

 affinities ; the Siberian Kirghiz is included in or is at least contiguous 

 to the habitat of P. obovata, and is separated by a desert region from 

 the mountains of Turkestan which are connected by the Hindu-Koosh 

 and its offsets with the Himalaya of Afghanistan on which P. Smitliiana 

 is very abundant. Like all coniferous trees inhabiting a rigorous climate- 

 P. Sclirenldana does not grow satisfactorily under the stimulus of the 

 higher winter temperature of Great Britain, but further trial is needed 

 before its suitableness or otherwise for the gardens and Pineta of this, 

 country can be determined. 



Picea sitchensis. 



A tree of very variable height and dimensions, usually about 100 feet 

 high, but trees 200 250 feet high with a conspicuously tapering 

 trunk 12 15 feet in diameter near the base are not uncommon along 

 the coast of Washington and Oregon ; at the extreme northern limit 

 of its distribution it is reduced to a low shrub. In Great Britain 

 when standing alone and growing in favourable situations, it has a 

 broadly pyramidal outline, the bark of the oldest trees usually much 

 and irregularly fissured. Branches spreading horizontally or slightly 

 depressed, the lowermost often long in proportion to height of trunk. 

 Bark of branchlets pale yellowish brown ; buds ovoid-conic, sub-acute, 

 0'25 inch long with reddish brown, ovate, obtuse perulae. Leaver 

 persistent three seven years according to the soil in which the tree is 

 growing ; linear, flattened, rigid and spine-tipped, 0'5 0*75 inch long, 

 but occasionally larger on vigorous shoots, spirally crowded around the 

 branchlets, the longer ones on the under side sub-distichous in two three 

 ranks ; the shorter ones on the upper side pointing -forwards at a small 

 angle to the axis, with a silvery white stomatiferous band on each side 

 of the thickened midrib on the ventral side, light lustrous green on the 

 dorsal side. Staminate flowers numerous, on lateral branchlets of the 

 preceding year, cylindric, reddish crimson, shortly stalked, surrounded at 



* With the object of obtaining, if possible, more definite information on this point, I 

 addressed a communication pointing out the difficulty to Dr. Fischer de Waldheim, the 

 Director of the Imperial Botanic Garden at St. Petersburg, who courteously replied that there 

 were several specimens of Picea Schrenkiana gathered in Turkestan preserved in the herbarium 

 of the Garden of which two or three scarcely differ from P. Smith-iana, whilst other types are 

 easily distinguished from it by their shorter and thicker acicular leaves ; the greater number 

 are, however, intermediate forms. The Director adds: " Peut-etrc toutes les variations ne 

 ferment qu'une seule espece. II est bien difficile de le dire pour sur a cause de trop pen 

 d'exemplaires disponibles, d'autant plus que ces changenients dependent du lieu de 

 croissance selon 1'altitude, etc." 



