14 BULLETIN 327, U. S. DEPARTMENT OE AGRICULTURE. 



from 350 to 460 years old. Stunted trees from 3 to 5 inches in 

 diameter grown on high wind-swept crests are from 150 to 200 years 

 old. Extremely large trees occasionally found would doubtless prove 

 to be from 500 to 600 years old. 



BLUE SPRUCE—" COLORADO BLUE SPRUCE." 



Picea parryana 1 (Andre) Gardeners' Chronicle. 



COMMON NAME AND EARLY HISTORY. 



Blue spruce is popularly one of the most widely known North 

 American conifers, and chiefly because of the handsome pyramidal 

 crown form of young trees and the exceptional silvery hue of its 

 foliage, which the common name "blue spruce" aptly describes. 

 Because much of the cultivated stock is raised from seed obtained 

 from Colorado, the tree is frequently called Colorado blue spruce. It 

 was discovered 53 years ago on Pikes Peak, Colo., by Dr. C. C. Parry, 2 

 whose name it now bears. In the same year (1862) blue spruce was 

 described for the first time and named " Abies menziessii Engelmann." 

 This name had to be abandoned because in 1833 Lindley had applied 

 it to another tree. In 1863 it was named " Picea menziesii Engel- 

 mann," which likewise proved to have been preoccupied in 1855. The 

 first tenable name attached to the blue spruce is "Abies menziesii 

 parryana Andre," which was published in 1876, and on which the 

 present accepted name of this tree, Picea parryana, is based. Blue 

 spruce is, however, very commonly known to growers of ornamental 

 trees as Picea pungens Engelmann, which was published in 1879. 3 



1 The question of what authority should be attached to Picea parryana (Andre), which 

 is based on Abies menziesii parryana Andre (1876), is somewhat perplexing. Recent 

 authors write " Picea parryana Sargent," which is presumably based on Prof. Sargent's 

 publication of this combination in Garden and Forest (X, 482) in 1897 or on his use of 

 this name in the Silva (XII, 47) in 1898. However, the Index Kewensis (Fasciculus III, 

 520) established Picea parryana in 1894 by citing as a synonym of it Picea pungens 

 Engelmann (published in 1879), giving "Hort. ex Parry" (in Gard. Chron., XX, 725, 

 1883) as the authority for Picea parryana. Incidentally, Dr. Parry is not responsible for 

 this name, in so far as published evidence is concerned, as reference to the page cited in 

 the Gardeners' Chronicle will show, but a nameless writer for the above English journal. 

 " Picea parryana " was, therefore, clearly established first in 1883 by this anonymous pub- 

 lication in the Gardeners' Chronicle, and there would seem to be no good reason why 

 Gardeners' Chronicle, the actual authority for Picea parryana, should be ignored. It is 

 perhaps unfortunate that the name of a journal must be cited as authority for a technical 

 name, but strict observance of the facts in this case seems to make it unavoidable. 



2 Sargent, Silva, XII, 48. 



3 The first trees cultivated in this country were probably raised from seed which Dr. 

 Parry sent to the Botanic Garden of Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass., in 1863. 

 (Gard. Chron., XX, 725, 1883.) This and many other later trials of the tree in our 

 Northeastern and Middle Eastern States have shown that blue spruce can be successfully 

 grown in these regions. The fact, however, that the great beauty of crown and the bril- 

 liant color of the foliage are gradually lost as the trees grow older limits the lasting 

 usefulness of this species for ornament. 



Blue spruce was probably introduced into England in 1877 (Gard. Chron., VII, 48, 562 T 

 1877), where it grows thriftily. 



The German Government began testing blu« spruce in the latter part of the eighties 

 from seed collected in Colorado, and Dr. Schwappach (Zeitschr. Forst- und Jagdwesen, 

 XXXIII, 211, 1901) states that this species is well adapted for forest planting in 

 northern Germany. 



