1360 The Trees of Great Britain and Ireland 



northern Sweden, near Bracke, and in Norway, near Trondhjem ; all agreeing in 

 the character of the cones, branchlets, buds, and leaves, and constituting, in my 

 opinion, a species distinct from P. excelsa, of which P. obovata is generally considered 

 to be a variety by Schroter and other modern botanists. These authorities have 

 apparently paid no attention to the characteristic pubescence of P. obovata, a matter 

 of importance, as in the genus Picea the presence or absence of pubescence on the 

 branchlets is one of the most diagnostic features in the discrimination of the different 

 species. The cones, moreover, are amply distinct in the two species. 



P. obovata varies somewhat in the size of the cones and in the shape of their 

 scales ; and two main varieties have been distinguished, which are, however, 

 connected by intermediate gradations. These varieties are : {a) the typical form 

 described above, which is characterised by the scales of the cone being entire on 

 margin ; and {S) var. fennica. 



I. N ■ax. fennica, Henry. 



Picea excelsa, Link, wax. fennica, Schroter, in Viertelj. Naturf. Ges. Ziirich, xliii. 138 (1898). 



Picea excelsa. Link, var. medioxima, Willkomm, Forst. Fl. 75 (1887). 



Picea vulgaris, Link, var. uralensis, Teplouchoff, in Bull Soc. Nat. Mosc. xli. pt. ii. 250 (1869). 



Pinus Abies, Linn^us, ysx. fennica, Kegel, in Gartenflora, xii. 95 (1863). 



Pinus Abies, Linnseus, var. medioxima, Nylander, in Bull. Soc. Bot. France, x. 501 (1863). 



Pinus Picea medioxima, Christ, Flore de la Suisse, 254 (1883). 



Abies medioxima, Lawson, Pinet. Brit. ii. 159 (1867). 



Cone-scales, with their upper margins rounded and finely denticulate. Leaves 

 dark green in colour. 



According to Schroter this variety occurs sporadically in Amurland and Siberia, 

 and is the common form in the Ural range and throughout Russian Lapland, 

 northern Sweden, and northern Norway, occurring with less frequency in Finland, 

 Livland, Kazan, and Poland. Solitary trees with cones similar to this variety have 

 also been recorded from numerous stations in the mountains^ of central Europe, 

 from the Vosges and Jura throughout the Alps to the Carpathians and Bosnia. 



2. Var. alpestris, Henry. 



Picea alpestris, Stein, in Gartenflora, xxxvi. 346 (1887). 



Picea excelsa. Link, var. alpestris, Schroter, op. cit. 141 (1898) 



Abies excelsa alp^estris, Briigger, in /. B Naturf Ges. Graubundens, xvii. 154 (1874). and xxix. 



Abies excelsa medioxima, Heer, in Verh. Schw. Nat. Ges. 1869, p. 70 (not Nylander). 



Cones 3 to 5 in. long, with scales rounded and entire in upper margin. Leaves 

 short, 4 to f in. stout, very glaucous. 



Trees with a whitish grey bark, and with remarkable bluish white foliage 

 which have been found at high elevations (between 4400 and 6400 ft.) in a few 

 localities in the Swiss Alps, from Landbeck in the TyroP to Engstelnalp in the 

 Bernese Oberland, and from Lake Walen to Lake Como. These trees were first 

 investigated by Heer and Brugger on account of the special name given to them by 



' Cf. Christ, in Garden and Forest, ix. 273 (1896). 

 Beissner, in Mitt. Deut. Dend. Ges. .905, p. ,43, describes trees like var. alpestHs in the Engadine. 



