38 CONIFERS AND TAXADS OF JAPAN 



PICEA MAXIMOWICZII Regel 



PLATES XXI AND XXII 



PICEA MAXIMOWICZII Regel in Ind. Sem. Hort. Petrop. 1865, 33 (name only). 

 Carriere, Traiti Conif. ed. 2, 347 (1867). Masters in Gard. Chron. n. ser. XIII. 363, 

 fig. (1880) ; in Jour. Linn. Soc. XVIII. 507, fig. 6 (1881) . Mayr, Monog. Abiet. Jap. 

 98 (1890). Elwes & Henry, Trees Gr. Brit. & Irel. VI. 1374 (1912). Shirasawa 

 & Koyama in Tokyo Bot. Mag. XXVII. 130, t. 11, fig. 18-27 (1913). Clinton- 

 Baker, III. Conif. III. 68, t. (1913). Silva Tarouca, Uns. Freiland-Nadelh. 

 215, t. 225 (1913). Shirasawa in Mitt. Deutsch. Dendr. Ges. XXIII. 255, fig. 18-27 

 (1914); in Gard. Chron. ser. 3, LVIII. 99, t. 36, fig. 18-27 (1915). 



Abies obovata, var. japonica Maximowicz in Ind. Sem. Hort. Petrop. 1866, 1, 3. 



Franchet & Savatier, Enum. PL Jap. I. 466 (1875). 

 Abies Maximowiczii Neumann, Cat. 1865 ex Carriere, Traite Conif. 347 (as a synonym) 



(1867). Veitch, Man. Conif. 80 (1881). 

 Picea obovata japonica Beissner, Handb. Nadelh. 370 (1891). 

 Picea Tschonoskii Mayr, Fremdl. Wald-u. Parkb. 339 (1906). 

 Picea excelsa, var. obovata japonica Beissner, Handb. Nadelh. ed. 2, 220 (1909). 



This little-known Spruce is usually a tree from 10 to 25 m. tall, with a trunk 

 from 1 to 2.5 m. in girth, but exceptionally fine specimens from 40 to 50 m. tall and 

 from 4 to 5 m. in girth of trunk are known in temple grounds. The bark is grayish 

 brown to light gray, thick, fissured and rough, but firmly coherent. The branches 

 are very numerous, slender, moderately long, on young trees ascending-spreading, 

 but on larger trees horizontally disposed and upturned at the ends. The shoots 

 are glabrous, rusty to yellowish brown, becoming pale whitish gray in the second 

 and third years. The winter-buds are conical, pointed, reddish brown and resin- 

 ous. The leaves spread on all sides of the shoot and point slightly forward; they 

 are deep green, 4-angled in section, short and stout, with a blunt tip, but on 

 young trees and on the inner branches of adult trees the leaves are longer and 

 more slender and are very pungent. The cone is cylindrical or nearly so, varies in 

 length from 2.5 to 6.5 cm., is pale green in color and when ripe rather shining 

 brown; the cone-scales are rounded, entire and slightly oblique at the apex. The 

 wood is white and of the average value of Spruce timber. 



Until its rediscovery in October 1911 by Mr. Mitsua Koyama, this Spruce 

 had not been met with growing wild since Tschonoski discovered it and sent 

 seeds and herbarium material to Maximowicz in 1865. Indeed there has been 

 much speculation as to its origin and Mayr and others have doubted if it was a 

 Japanese species. This can be explained by the fact that it is not met with in Jap- 

 anese gardens and temple grounds in the parts of Japan readily accessible to trav- 

 ellers. It is in fact a very rare and local tree and grows only in remote mountainous 

 parts of central Hondo, where the population is very sparse and access exceedingly 

 difficult. Dr. H. Shirasawa told me of the discovery of this tree on the Yatsuga- 

 dake, a high mountain on the borders of Kai and Shinano provinces, and acting 

 on this information I visited the place in company with Mr. Koyama. The 

 mountain or mountain ridge has three peaks, the highest being about 3000 m. 

 above sea-level, and is probably the richest mountain for conifers in the empire. 

 The lower slopes, doubtless once well forested, are now moor-like and covered with 



