1374 The Trees of Great Britain and Ireland 



PICEA MAXIMOWICZII 



Picea Maximowiczii, Regel, in Index Sent. Hort. Petrop. 33 (1865); Carriere, Com/. 347 (1867); 



Masters, in Gard. Chron. xiii. 363 (1880), and Journ. Linn. Soc. (Pot.) xviii. 507 (1881); 



Mayr, Abiet. Jap. Reiches, 98 (1890). 

 Picea obovata, Ledebour, var. japonica, Beissner, Nadelholzkunde, 370 (1891). 

 Picea Tschonoskii, Mayr, 1 Fremdland. Wald-u. Parkbiiutne, 339 (1906). 

 Abies obovata, Loudon, var. japonica, Maximowicz, in Index Sent. Hort. Petrop. 1 and 3 (1866); 



Franchet, Enum. PL Jap. i. 466 (1875). 

 Abies Maximowiczii, Neumann, Cat. 1865, ex Parlatore, in De Candolle, Prod. xvi. 2, p. 431 (1868) ; 



Veitch, Man. Conif. 80 (188 1). 



A small tree. Young branchlets reddish brown, glabrous, with the apices of the 

 pulvini all directed outwards and forwards. Buds about \ in. long, ovoid, acute, 

 with glabrous rounded resinous scales. Leaves on lateral branches radially spreading 

 on all sides at nearly a right angle to the branchlet, but with their tips pointing 

 slightly forwards ; to \ in. long, rigid, tapering near the apex which is tipped with 

 a short blunt point ; green, quadrangular in section, with three to five stomatic lines 

 on each surface ; resin-canals two, lateral, close to the epidermis. 



Cones, if to 2 in. long, 1 in. in diameter when open, shining brown when ripe, 

 cylindrical, but tapering at both ends : scales numerous, obovate with a cuneate claw, 

 \ in. wide ; rounded, entire, and bevelled in the upper margin : glabrous in the 

 exposed part, elsewhere covered with a minute reddish pubescence : bract about 

 \ in. long, oblong, with a rounded faintly denticulate apex. Seeds, not extending to 

 the upper and, lateral margins of the scale, \ in. long, dark brown mottled with lighter 

 streaks ; seed with wing \ in. long ; wing widest near the upper rounded denticulate 

 margin. 



This species is readily distinguishable by its short leaves radially arranged, and 

 its resinous buds. At Kew it produces new shoots a month earlier than P. bicolor. 



This spruce is a native of Japan, where it was collected in 1864 on Mt. 

 Fujiyama by Tschonoski, 2 a young Japanese collector in the employment of 

 Maximowicz. One of the original specimens from this locality is preserved at Kew, 

 where there is also an imperfect specimen, 8 collected in the same year in the province 

 of Senano by Tschonoski, which was recognised by Maximowicz to be the same 

 species.* It appears to be very rare, and has not since been found by Japanese 

 botanists. Maximowicz considered it to be a variety of P. obovata, from which it is 

 clearly distinct ; but it is rather related to P. bicolor, though differing much in foliage 

 and in cones. 



1 Mayr erroneously considered that the tree cultivated as P. Maximowiczii was different from Tschonoski's Fujiyama 

 specimen. He identified the latter with P. bicolor, and proposed a new name, P. Tschonoskii, for the former. 



* Maximowicz, in Rhamn. As. Or. 17 (1866), gave an account of Tschonoski, who was a Japanese and not a Russian as 

 some authors have supposed. He gathered about 800 species of Japanese plants, and sent seeds of many kinds to St. 

 Petersburg. 



* Consisting of a cone and a single leaf. The cones on the Grignon tree, about 2 in. long, are intermediate in size 

 between those of the Fujiyama tree (which are if in. long) and those of the Senano specimen (about 2J in. long). 



* The Senano specimen is labelled Abies obova/a, Loudon, var. japonica, Maximowicz ; and the Fujiyama specimen is 

 named Picea Maximowiczii, Regel. 



