Picea. CONIFERS. 121 



Conif. 2 ed. 250. Pinus Mertensiana, Bong. Veg. Sitch. 45; Parlat. Abies 

 Mertemiana, Lindl. & Gord. A. Albertiana, Murr. A. Bridgei, Kell. Proc. Calif. 

 Acad. ii. 8. 



Peculiar to the Pacific Coast region, from Marin County (G. R. Vascy) and especially Mendo- 

 cino (Bolander, Kellogg) to Alaska. Closely allied to the northeastern T. Caiuidensis, but a 

 larger tree, with liner and straighter grained wood and redder bark, principally distinguished by 

 the more elongated scales of the cone and the proportionately much longer and straighter wings 

 of the seeds ; in the eastern species the scales are almost as wide as they are long and the seeds 

 larger, but the wings, very broad at base and almost triangular, are only J or J longer than the 

 seed. Another character taken from the leaf-structure, the presence of hypoderm cells on the 

 edges, midrib and keel of the leaf, is not reliable, as these cells are occasionally found in leaves of 

 T. Canadensis, though usually absent. 



* * Leaves mostly convex or keeled above, acutish, stomatose both sides : pollen- 

 g rains b'dobed : cones larger. HESPEROPEUCE. 



2. T. Pattoniana. A tall strictly pyramidal tree (100 to 150 feet high and 2 

 to rarely 4 feet through, in high altitudes only a shrub), of graceful habit, with 

 slender pubescent branchlets and light green foliage : bark thick, much cracked and 

 apt to scale off, reddish gray : leaves 6 to 1 2 lines long, angular, acutish, attenuate 

 at base, often curved : male flowers about 2 lines wide, on a very slender stipe : cones 

 cylindrical- oblong, 2 or 3 inches long : seeds 2| lines in length, the wing not twice 

 as long (about 4 lines), obliquely obovate, widest above. Abies Pattonii or Pat- 

 toniana, Jeffrey. A. Hookeriana, Murray. A. Williamsonii, Newberry, Pacif. R. 

 Rep. vi. 53, t. 7. Pinus Pattoniana, Parlat. 



In the highest timber regions of the Sierra Nevada, at 8,000 to 10,000 feet altitude, from 

 Ebbett's Pass at the head of the San Joaqnin River northward, and through the Cascade Moun- 

 tains, near Crescent City descending to near the coast (Ercwer). At the timber-line its propor- 

 tions are much stinted. Though (littering in the shape of the leaves, the disposition of the sto- 

 mata, and especially in the form of the pollen-grains, which resemble those of the true pines, yet 

 I cannot separate this species from Tsuga, with which the single resin-duct of the leaves, the 

 form of the male flowers, and the glands of the seed unite it. 



10. PICEA, Link. SPRUCE. 



Male flowers axillary or sometimes terminal on last year's branchlets, with an 

 oblong or cylindrical stamineal column, its short stipe surrounded by numerous bud- 

 scales ; the commissure of the anthers expanding into a broad nearly circular erect 

 crest ; cells opening longitudinally : pollen-grains as in Abies (.045 to .060 line long). 

 Female aments at the end of short or longer branchlets, the scales much larger than 

 the bracts. Cones maturing in the first year, pendulous : scales and enclosed bracts 

 persistent on the axis. Seeds without resin-vesicles, imbedded in the membrana- 

 ceous base of the wing, which leaves their under side nearly free and permits them to 

 drop out. Cotyledons 4 to 8. Stately trees of pyramidal form and slower growth, 

 with white soft close tough highly valued timber ; leaves keeled above and beneath, 

 more or less quadrangular or (in our species) flattened, articulated on a prominent 

 at last ligneous and persistent rhombic base, spirally arranged all around the branch- 

 lets or (by a twist of the base) somewhat 2-ranked, the stomata usually more on the 

 upper than on the lower surface, or, on the flat leaves, often only on the upper side 

 (which is then apt to be turned downward) ; resin-ducts irregular, 1 or 2 lateral 

 ones close to the epidermis of the lower side or none. Abies, Tourn., in part ; DC., 

 in part ; Pinus, Linn., in part. Pinus, sect. Picea, Endl. ; Parlat. Abies, Don. 



An important genus of about a dozen species, peculiar to mountainous and northern regions, of 

 which 2 belong to Europe, 5 to Asia, and 5 to America ; of the latter 2 are northeastern and 3 

 are western species. 



