137 2 The Trees of Great Britain and Ireland 



PICEA BICOLOR 



Picea bicolor, Mayr, Abiet. Jap. Reich. 49, t. 3, fig. 8 (1890), and Fremdldnd. Wald- u. Parkbdume, 

 323 (1906); Shirasawa, Icon. Ess. Forest. Japon, i. text 19, t. 4, figs. 1-14 (1900). 



Picea Alcockiana, Carriere, Conif. 343 (1867); Masters, in Gard. Chron. xiii. 212, figs. 41, 43 

 (1880), and in Journ. Linn. Soc. (Bot.) xviii. 508, figs. 7-9 (1881); Hennings, in Gartenflora, 

 xxxviii. 216, fig. 40 (1889); Kent, Veitch's Man. Conif. 429 (1900); Henry, in Trees of Great 

 Britain, i. 89, 90 (1906). 



Picea Japonica, 1 Regel, Index Sent. Hort. Petrop. 33 (1865). 



Picea acicularis, Beissner, Nadelhohkunde, 380 (1891). 



Abies bico/or, Maximowicz, in Mil. Biol. vi. 24 (1866). 



Abies acicularis, Maximowicz, in Index Sent. Hort. Petrop. 74 (1868). 



Abies Alcockiana, Gordon, Pinetum, 4 (1875) ( not Lindley). 



Pinus Alcoquiana, Parlatore, in De Candolle, Prod. xvi. 2, p. 417 (1868). 



A tree, attaining in Japan 80 ft. in height. Bark greyish brown, Assuring into 

 small scales. Young branchlets yellowish, glabrous on the lateral branches, but 

 pubescent in the furrows between the pulvini on strong leading shoots ; older 

 branchlets shining reddish brown. Buds, about \ in. long, conic, rounded at the 

 apex, without resin, and with few scales, scarious in margin. Leaves, on 

 lateral branches arranged as in P. excelsa, about f in. long, rigid, curved, ending in 

 a short cartilaginous point, rhombic in section, with two conspicuous white stomatic 

 bands on the upper two sides, each of 5 or 6 lines, and two bands of about 2 lines 

 each on the two lower green sides. 



Cones, averaging 3J in. long and 1 in. in diameter when closed ; bluish red with 

 green margins to the scales when growing, brownish when mature; ovoid-cylindrical: 

 scales obovate with a cuneate base, about f in. broad, thin and faintly denticulate in 

 the upper rounded margin ; bract \ in. long, spatulate, with a slightly expanded 

 denticulate lamina. Seed, \ to \ in. long, brown ; seed with wing f in. long ; wing 

 widest about the middle, rounded and faintly denticulate at the apex. 



This species, as its name implies, differs from the other quadrangular-leaved 

 spruces, in the conspicuous white broad stomatic bands on the upper surface of the 

 leaf, contrasting with the green lower surface, and" in this respect it simulates the flat- 

 leaved spruces, and has been confused 2 with P. hondoensis and P. ajanensis. The 

 leaves of the latter are flat and not rhombic in section, and are devoid of the faint 

 stomatic lines on their lower surface, which are readily seen in P. bicolor. 



History 



This species was discovered in i860 on Fujiyama by J. G. Veitch, who 

 collected cones of it, unfortunately mixed with twigs of P. hondoensis. Lindley, in 

 1 86 1, described a mixture of the two species, and his name, Abies Alcoquiana, Veitch, 8 



1 A name without any description. It is identified in Index Sem. Hort. Petrop. 3 (1866) with Abies bicolor, Maxim. 

 Seeds were sent from Japan in 1 865 by Tschonoski. 3 Cf. Vol. I. p. 90. 



3 Ex Lindley, in Gard. Chron. 1861, p. 23. Lindley's description comprises the leaves of P. hondoensis and the cones 

 of P. bicolor. The type specimen, in which both these are mixed in one packet, is in the herbarium at Cambridge. 



