8o The Trees of Great Britain and Ireland 



reported to. occur also at Bellova in the Rhodope mountains in Bulgaria; but, so far 

 as we can discover, these statements have not been confirmed, A fossil species 

 which has been identified with the existing tree by Webber has been found in the 

 interglacial deposits at Hottingen near Innsbruck in the Tyrol. An allied species, 

 Picea omorikoides, Webber,' has been found at Aue in Saxony in a preglacial 

 deposit which is of the same age as the Cromer forest bed on the coast of Norfolk. 

 Lokowitz has also found near Mulhouse in Alsace some remains of a spruce in the 

 middle Oligocene beds which resembles Picea Omorika. 



In the herbarium at Kew there are specimens collected by V. Crucic on the 

 Drina, and others with good cones gathered by Elwes at 2000 to 3000 feet altitude. 



(A. H.) 



I visited the valley of the Drina in Bosnia in 1900 on purpose to see this tree, 

 and after driving a long day east from Sarajevo, reached Rogatica, from where Herr 

 Gschwind, the obliging forest officer of the district, was good enough to accompany 

 me to Han Semec, a Gendarmerie station on the road to Visegrad, about 15 miles 

 from Rogatica. Han Semec is at an elevation of 3800 feet, and is surrounded by 

 beautiful forests of Austrian and Scots pines, spruce, silver fir, and beech. 



The climate of the district is very cold in winter and warm in summer. The 

 minimum temperature being 33 Reaumur on 23rd December, + 30, the maximum 

 on 7th July 1897, the snow lying as long as 4-5 months." The rainfall in summer is 

 heavy, amounting to 116.2 centimetres, which fell on 124 days, and the weather was 

 wet most of the time I was there. 



After passing through some beautiful mountain meadows and primaeval forest of 

 large spruce and silver fir mixed in places with beech and aspen, as well as small oaks 

 and large birch, we came to the edge of a deep rocky ravine running down to the 

 Drina valley. On the steep limestone cliffs overhanging this ravine, which are a 

 favourite haunt of chamois, Picea Omorika was growing in clumps, and isolated 

 trees occurred among common spruce, Scots and Austrian pine. 



The branches are short and drooping as compared with those of common spruce, 

 and the cones being found only near the top of the tree, we had to cut one down in 

 order to procure fruiting specimens ; on this I found young cones of the year, cones 

 of last year which had not yet opened, and which, according to the forester, contained 

 good seed only when there was turpentine exuding from them, and old cones which 

 hang two or three years on the tree after shedding their seed. In habit and .appearance 

 the tree resembles the American Picea alba more than any tree I know, though its 

 nearest botanical affinities are with P. sitchensis and P. ajanensis. Plate 28, which is 

 from two of several photographs kindly sent me by Herr Othmar Reiser of the Landes- 

 museum, Serajevo, Bosnia, gives an excellent idea of the forest and of individual trees. 



The average size of the full - grown trees on these steep cliffs was 

 not above 50-60 feet, with about i foot of diameter, but I found some 

 measuring 80-90 feet high and 18 inches diameter. Young seedlings were scarce 

 and difficult to find on the mossy rocks ; but we collected 20 or 30 plants, of 



' Engkr's Bot. Jahrb. xxiv. 1898, Heft 4, 510, 504. 

 ' C Met. Beob. Land Stationm in Bosnien (1899). 



