THE PIXE SUB-FAMILY. 155 



naceous sheaths, short, stiff, twisted, shortly acute, trigo- 

 nal, glaucous-green color. Cones, from 2 to 4 inches long, 

 elliptic-oval, obtuse, containing about 50 scales ; scales, 

 large, wedge-shaped, coriaceous, sub-orbicular, and ashy- 

 brown color. Seeds, large, obliquely elliptic-obovate, ob- 

 tuse at both ends, with a short, dark-brown wing, and a 

 smooth, opaque, dark-brown shell. Cotyledons, 8 to 10. 



A small or medium-sized tree, which, according to Sie- 

 bold, is spread by cultivation through all the provinces of 

 Japan, although originally belonging to the north of that 

 empire, extending from nearly 35 N. L., as far north as 

 the Kurile Isles. The trees of this species which Siebold 

 observed in the gardens and public promenades did not 

 exceed 25 feet in height, but upon the north-east slope of 

 the Fakone Mountains he saw more lofty specimens. 



2. ABIES, Tourn. SPRUCE. FIR. 



Leaves, all of one kind, not clustered. Male aments, in 

 the axils of the leaves. Fertile aments lateral or terminal 

 on branches of the preceding year. Scales of cones thin, 

 not thickened at their apex nor prickly-tipped, persistent 

 or deciduous. 



The Spruces, Hemlocks and Firs, are by some botanists 

 placed in the distinct genera Abies, Tsuga, and Plcea. 

 The older writers called the Spruce, Picea, and the Fir, 

 Abies / Linnreus reversed these terms, and we now find 

 writers differing in their use of them, some following Lin- 

 na3us, and others adopting the views of Link, who adheres 

 to the older nomenclature. As the characters upon which 

 the distinctions of these three genera are founded are not 

 well settled, it better suits the purpose of the present 

 work to place Tsuga and Picea as sub-genera of Abies, as 

 follows : 



