46 Illustrations of Conifers. 



PICEA PUNGENS (Englemann). 



Gardener's Chronicle, Vol. XI. p. 884 (1879). 



X. serifs 8, p. 547 (1891), with fig. 



Veitch's Man. Conif. ed. 2, p. 448 (1900). 



A TREE attaining in America a height of 80 to 100 feet or more, with 

 a trunk rarely 9 feet in girth. Bark brownish-grey, fissuring into ob- 

 long plates. Branchlets stout, rigid, yellow-brown, glabrous. Buds 

 ovoid or broadly conic, with chestnut-brown scales. 



Leaves on lateral branches radially arranged, stout, rigid, }-!$ 

 inches long, quadrangular in section, sharp-pointed with lines of 

 stomata on all four sides, more or less glaucous and varying in colour 

 from bluish-grey to silvery-white. 



Cones cylindrical, 2 - 4 inches long, light brown ; scales undulate 

 in margin and erose at the apex ; bract much shorter than the scale, 

 rhomboidal, acuminate, laciniate at the upper edge. Seeds J inch 

 long, half the length of their wings. 



Picea pungens occurs in the region of the Rocky Mountains from 

 Colorado and eastern Utah northwards to Wyoming, growing often on 

 the banks of streams or rocky ledges at 6,000 to 10,000 feet elevation. 

 It was discovered on Pike's Peak in Colorado in 1862 by Dr. Parry 

 and shortly afterwards introduced into cultivation. The glaucous form 

 is highly valued in gardens on account of its decorative character 

 although it does not attain to any size. The green-leaved form is 

 somewhat rare. 



The Bayfordbury specimen of the glaucous variety is about 12 

 feet high. The date of planting is unknown. The photograph re- 

 presents a specimen from a tree growing in the Arnold Arboretum, 

 U.S.A. 



