204 PICEA, OR 



A fine tree, growing upwards of 60 feet high, with a trunk 

 nine or ten feet in circumference, and a spreading head. 



Timber very hard and durable. It is called the Wild Cedar 

 by the Greeks. 



It is found on the highest mountain in Cephalonia, called 

 Mount Enos, or the Black Mountain, at an elevation of 4000 or 

 5000 feet, and was first introduced into England by General 

 Napier, when governor of Cephalonia. 



It is quite hardy, but suffers greatly in its young growth by 

 the late spring frosts. 



No. 6. Picea fikma, Siebold, the Japan Silver Fir. 

 Syn. Abies homolepis, Siebold. 



firma, Zuccarini. 



Momi, Siebold. 



bifida, Siebold. 



Leaves solitary, somewhat two-rowed, one inch long, very 

 thickly placed on the shoots, linear, flat, and blunt-pointed, or 

 sometimes deeply bifid at the ends, partially sickle-shaped, on 

 very short footstalks, and seldom inserted exactly in lines on 

 the branches ; smooth, leathery, of a rich green above, and 

 marked on each side of the mid-rib on the under side with two 

 white lines. Branches in regular whorls, like the common 

 Silver Fir, spreading, flat, and horizontal, with the smaller ones 

 opposite, and thickly clothed with foliage; buds oval, rounded 

 on the points, smooth, in threes, the middle one the longest, 

 imbricated, and surrounded with numerous narrow membrana- 

 ceous scales, in several close tiers, which remain at the base 

 of the shoots, afterwards, for some years. Cones cylindrical, 

 blunt-pointed, straight, but sometimes slightly curved, and on 

 short footstalks, three inches long, and one inch broad, thickly 

 covered with closely imbricated brown scales. Scales broad, 

 wedge-shaped at the base, rounded on the upper margin, 

 and slightly crenulated, numerous, deciduous, thin, flat, imbri- 

 cated, membranaceous round the edges, and slightly toothed, 

 thickest at the base, of a dull brown colour, and falling off the 

 axile in the autumn after the seeds are ripe ; bracteas projecting, 



