GENUS PICEA. ^ 73 



P. excelsa, Link. Common Spruce. (^Synonyms: 

 Abies excelsUy D. C. ; Abies Picea^ Miller ; Pinus Abies ^ 

 Linnaeus ; Picea vulgaris. Link ; Pinus excelsus, Lamarck.) 

 Mountains of Northern and Central Europe. Prior to 1548. 

 Whether as a hardy, shelter-giving tree, or for the quantity 

 and quality of timber it produces, the common spruce must 

 ever rank high in the list of exotic conifers that have been 

 found suitable for culture in this country. It is well adapted 

 for general forest planting, luxuriating at high altitudes, and 

 not only acting as a capital nurse tree, but producing a fair 

 quantity of valuable timber. When clean grown, the timber 

 is valuable for temporary roofing and fencing, pit props, floor- 

 ing, packing boxes, etc. As an ornamental tree the fine pro- 

 portions and well-clothed trunk render it very effective, which 

 are further enhanced by the intense green of the thickly pro- 

 duced foliage. It wants rich, moist soil. 



P- excelsa aurea is a beautiful variety, of robust 

 growth, and justly remarkable for the bronzy tint which 

 pervades the golden foliage, this being most pronounced at 

 the branch tips. This seems to be identical with the con- 

 tinental variety named P. excelsa magnijica, but of which I 

 have only seen dried specimens. 



P- excelsa brevifolia. A plant of this sent to me 

 certainly well bears out the name, the leaves being nearly one 

 half shorter than those of any other known variety. The 

 growth is remarkably slow, and the plant dwarf and compact 

 in habit. It is not well known. 



P. excelsa Clan brasi liana is a dwarf variety of 

 curiously irregular growth, but useful for certain positions. 

 The short and slender branches are densely packed with 

 needle-shaped leaves, each J of an inch long, and of a light 

 glaucous hue. 



P. excelsa elegrans attains to 8 feet in height, and is 

 chiefly remarkable for its compact and fragile mode of growth 

 and greyish slender leaves, which have an erect tendency. 



P. excelsa Finedonensis has the young shoots 

 of a bronzy or brownish-yellow colour ; but this gradually 



