ADAPTATION OF CONIFERS 61 



very well for many years. In adult individuals the branches 

 are stout and spreading, with frequently long pendulous 

 branchlets suspended from the main branches, and in a healthy 

 tree this habit appears highly ornamental. There are a number 

 of pendulous, columnar, and dwarf varieties of the Norway 

 spruce. The dwarf varieties appear to show more virility than 

 the type. The vars. Gregoryana, Maxwellii, Ellwangeriana, 

 microsperma, Clanbrasiliana, and nana have variously formed 

 low bushy and conical habits. They are excellent plants for 

 many situations in ornamental gardening where low evergreens 

 are required. In twenty-five years some of these very slow- 

 growing dwarf forms will not attain over three feet in height. 



The black spruce, Picea mariana, native from Canada to 

 Virginia, and often abundant in swampy or wet grounds, does 

 not succeed well in cultivation in western New York. After 

 ten to fifteen years it presents an unattractive appearance. 

 Var. Doumettii does remarkably well and is very promising. 

 It forms a dense conical pyramid with the branches crowded. 

 In fifteen years it does not exceed nine feet in height. Var. 

 nana is a low dense mat, which ultimately assumes a sub- 

 globose habit. It seems to retain health and vigor after many 

 years. 



The tigertail spruce, Picea polita, from Japan, is one of the 

 most distinct species, with its rigid leaves and stout branches. 

 It requires a moist rich soil and a well-protected situation, 

 and under such conditions it is quite hardy. In some parts of 

 the country it is alleged to lose the lower branches early, but 

 trees in the Northeastern States after twenty-five years are 

 retaining the lower branches remarkably well. 



Picea Maximowiczii, from Japan, is a very rare spruce in 

 cultivation. It has short stout leaves and slender branches 

 spreading and ascending, and inclined to be slightly divergent. 



