Picea 



Varieties 



93 



On the Continent, according both to Beissner * and to the late Prof. Carl Hansen, 

 whose " Pinetum Danicum," published in the Journal of the Royal Horticultural 

 Society for 1892, is a valuable contribution to our literature, a variety (speciosa) occurs 

 in cultivation, which is light blue in colour and very decorative. It differs from the 

 ordinary form in being slower in growth and in having leaves, which are shorter, 

 stiffer, and more sharply pointed. 



Distribution 



According to Sargent, this spruce extends farther north-west than any other 

 North American conifer, being found in long. 151 west on the east end of Kadiak 

 island, and all through the coast region of Alaska and British Columbia, west Wash- 

 ington and Oregon, and as far south as Caspar in Mendocino County, California. 



In the north it is a small tree, sometimes only a bush, but on the coast of 

 south-east Alaska is the largest and most abundant tree, and grows in company with 

 the western hemlock. Here it attains over 100 feet in height, and ascends the 

 mountains to about 3000 feet. 



In the south of British Columbia it is larger in size, but in Vancouver's Island it 

 did not seem common, and was not a conspicuous tree in the south-east parts of the 

 island which I visited. 



In Washington it grows to a very large size, and I measured one in swampy 

 ground near a logging camp in the White River valley which was 23 feet in girth at 

 6 feet from the ground, and appeared to be 3 to 4 feet in diameter at the place 

 where it was broken off at about 1 20 feet from the ground. 



Prof Sheldon, in a pamphlet on The Forest Wealth of Oregon, calls it the largest 

 tree in the state, growing 200 to 300 feet high, and has figured as the frontispiece of 

 this paper what he calls the largest Tideland spruce in the world. This tree grew 

 on the coast in God's Valley, on the North Nehalem River, Clatsop County, Oregon, 

 and measured 30 feet i\\ inches in diameter at 2 feet from the ground, and 20 feet 

 \\ inches at 6 feet from the ground. 



He states that it is distinctly a moisture-loving tree, and in the extensive coast 

 belt forest which it forms is an ideal lumber tree, free from limbs for a great part of 

 its height. 



It is not mentioned as growing in the great forest reserve of the Cascade 

 Range, and, according to Sheldon, extends southwards along the coast as far as 

 Curry County. In northern California it grows on rich alluvial plains at the 

 mouths of rivers, or in low valleys facing the ocean, where it is associated with 

 Sequoia sempervirens and Abies grandis, and thus may be said to be almost 

 strictly confined to a region where there is perennial moisture in the air, and an 

 annual rainfall of 50 inches and upwards. 



' Nadelholzkunde, 392 (1 90 1). 



