134 The Trees of Great Britain and Ireland 



Branches in remote almost horizontal whorls, with very long and slender 

 branchlets (often 10 ft., occasionally 20 ft. long) without or with very few lateral 

 branchlets. Leaves radially spreading. 



This remarkable form of the weeping spruce was considered by Linnaeus a to be 

 a hybrid between the spruce and Pinus sylvestris. It has been observed in about 

 twenty places in Sweden, where it is vulgarly called Tysk gran or German spruce, 

 in about the same number of localities in Norway, and in isolated cases in Livland, 

 East Prussia, Poland, Thuringia, Tyrol, Styria, Carinthia, Carniola, and Switzerland. 2 

 When sown, the peculiar habit is occasionally reproduced. 8 



7. Var. pendula, Jacques and Herincq, Man. Gin. Plantes, iv. 340, 341 



(i857). 



A remarkable form of the weeping spruce, narrow and columnar in habit, with 

 pendulous branches almost appressed to the stem. Conwentz 4 has described this 

 form, known to him as a single tree 5 in the Stellin forest near Elbing in West 

 Prussia, another 6 at Jegothen, near Heilsberg in East Prussia, and two others 7 

 near Schierke in the Harz Mountains. Kraemer 8 found another in a forest near 

 Kreut in Bavaria. Solitary examples have also been found in Switzerland, 9 in 

 northern Hungary, 10 and in the Bukowina. 11 The seed of the weeping spruce near 

 Jegothen, when sown by Conwentz, 4 gave twelve trees, only one of which showed 

 a tendency to the weeping habit. 



A similar tree with longer leaves, lighter in colour than the typical form, was 

 discovered 12 about the year i860 by Mr. R. Smith Carrington in a plantation near 

 K inlet Hall, Shropshire, which was propagated by R. Smith and Company, 

 Worcester, who sold it under the name Abies excelsa inverta, Gordon, Pinet. 

 Suppl. 4 (1862), a name scarcely worth keeping distinct from var. pendula, Jacques 

 and Herincq, which antedated it a few years. A fine example, about 30 ft. high, 

 was growing 14 in 1897 at Ide Hill, Sevenoaks, Kent; and a good specimen 

 exists at Murthly Castle. There is also a good example 15 at Barbier's nursery, 

 Orleans. 



Other kinds of weeping spruce, probably including Abies excelsa pendula, 

 Loudon, a form introduced by Booth, are irregular in habit and much more spread- 

 ing. A very fine example occurs at Durris. 



1 Linnaeus refers to it as Abies procera viminalis in Fl. Suec. 288 (1745)- 



I Cf. Schroter, op. cit. 151, who draws attention to the fact tbat P. Brcwcriana, of the Siskiyou Mountains, has this habit 

 as a constant specific character. 



Cf. Wilhelm, in Verh. K. K. Zool. Bot. Ges. Wien, xxxvii. (1887). 



Beat. Seltene Waldbdume W. Preussen, 135 (1895). 



6 Figured in Gartenflora, 1899, p. 618, fig. 86 ; and by Conwentz, op. cit. 141, figs. 12, 13. 



Figured by Conwentz, op. cit. 147, fig. 14. 



7 Figured in Gartenflora, 1901, p. 315, figs. 48, 49 ; and by Conwentz, op. cit. 150, 152, figs. 15, 16. 



8 In Flora, 1 841, p. 700. 



Schroter, op. cit. 156 (1898). 



10 Schilberszky, in Kertiszeti Lapok, vii. (1892), describes a weeping spruce near Leutschau. 



II Cf. Oesterr. Forst. u. Jagdzeit. 1897, p. 356. 



12 Nicholson, in Woods and Forests, 1884, p. 691 ; and The Garden, xxv. 229 (1884). 



" Picea excelsa inversa, Beissner, Nadelholzkunde, 361 ( 1 89 1 ). 



11 Card. Chron. xxii. 368, fig. 109 (1897). Cf. also Gard. Chron. xxix. 263, fig. 98 (1901). 

 16 Figured in Gartenflora, 1899, p. 617, fig. 87; and by Conwentz, op. cit. 163, fig. 17. 



