SPRUCE FIRS. 5 



shoots. They are deep green above, somewhat concave, and 

 streaked with glaucous bands below, and on twisted footstalks 

 placed on diamond-shaped cushions along the shoots. Cones 

 solitary or subaggregate, oblong-cylindrical, obtuse at the ends, 

 two inches long and four in circumference. Scales cartilagi- 

 nous, loose, obtuse-rhomboid, and denticulated on the upper 

 margins. Seeds two lines long, cinnamon-coloured, and with 

 obovate wings four lines long. 



A large tree, from 90 to 100 feet high, found on the sacred 

 mountain, Fusi-Yama, in the province of Surunja, on the 

 island of Nippon, in Japan, at an elevation of from 6000 to 

 7000 feet, where it forms a noble tree, with very small leaves, 

 glaucous, on the under side. 



It was first introduced by Messrs. Veitch and Sons, in 1861, 

 and named in compliment to Sir Rutherford Alcock, the British 

 minister at the Court of Yeddo, in Japan. 



No. 3. Abies commutata, Parlatore, Engelmann's Spruce. 

 Syn. Abies Engelmannii, Parry. 

 nigra, Engelmann, not Michaux. 

 Picea Engelmannii, Engelmann. 



Leaves thickly crowded all round the branchlets, three- 

 fourths of an inch long, four-sided, rigid, smooth, sharp-pointed, 

 and either straight or slightly curved, particularly when youno-, 

 and of glaucous white colour. Cones solitary, and either hori- 

 zontal or somewhat declining, ovate, or oblong-cylindrical, 

 obtuse at the ends, and from 2 to 2$ inches long, and 1 inch 

 broad. Scales rather loosely imbricated, somewhat cartilagi- 

 nous, ovate-rhomboid, subtruncate or emarginate, and with 

 thin crenate or erose margins. Seeds small, oval, and of a 

 brown colour, with short obovate wings. 



A pyramidal tree, from 80 to 100 feet high, with the 

 branches in whorls, the lower ones being horizontal, the upper 

 ones more or less ascending, and the branchlets prominently 

 tuberculated when old. 



Dr. Parry found it composing almost the entire forest growth 



