Picea 1 36 1 



the peasants, aviez selvadi, or wild silver fir, the common spruce being known as 

 pign. I have seen no specimens, but apart from the glaucous foliage, which is a 

 trivial and inconstant character in conifers, P. alpestris would seem to be identical 

 with P. obovata. 



A vast amount of literature ^ has been written on the relationship of P. obovata 

 to P. excelsa, the general result of which shows that a complete series of transitional 

 forms connecting the two species may be found ; but these are only met with in the 

 regions where the two spruces come in contact — elsewhere they are quite distinct 

 and easily recognisable. It is possible that these transitional forms are due to 

 hybridisation ; and further study by experimental sowings is needed to clear up the 

 matter. 



P. obovata is the most widely distributed of all the spruces, extending over the 

 vast northerly region of eastern Europe and Asia, where the climate is severe in 

 winter and continental in character. It occurs in northern Scandinavia, Lapland, 

 Finland, northern and eastern Russia, throughout Siberia to the Sea of Ochotsk 

 and Kamtschatka," and in Manchuria. It extends far to the northward, reaching 

 lat. 67° in the Kola peninsula, lat. 68° in the Ural range, attaining its most northerly 

 point in Siberia on the Yenisei at lat. 69° 5', and crossing the Stanovoi mountains at 

 lat. 64°, where it comes in contact with P. aj'anensis. According to Komarov ^ it is 

 abundant throughout the wooded parts of Manchuria, where it grows along the banks 

 of rivers, either forming pure woods or scattered amidst other trees. Its eastern and 

 southern limits in Asia are imperfectly known, but it forms great forests in the 

 mountains of Dahuria and in the Altai and Sayan ranges. Seebohm * describes it as 

 extending on the Yenisei "nearly as far north as the larch, where it is a very 

 important tree for commercial purposes. Its wood is white, of very small specific 

 gravity, extremely elastic ; and it is said not to lose its elasticity by age. It makes 

 the best masts for ships, and is for oars the best substitute for ash. Snow-shoes are 

 generally made of this wood. The quality is good down to the roots, and it makes 

 the best knees for shipbuilding." 



In European Russia its southern limit is the northern edge of the Orenburg 

 steppe ; and it forms vast forests in the governments of Perm, Vologda, Ekaterin- 

 burg, Ufa, Viatka, and Kama, that are either pure or mixed with larch, Pinus 

 Cembra, Abies sibirica, and birch. It appears to be the spruce prevalent in Finland 

 and in the Baltic provinces ; but in western Russia is mixed with P. excelsa, the 

 limits between the two species being undefined, owing to the occurrence of transitional 

 forms. Similarly in Scandinavia ° it is the common spruce in the north, while in 

 the south P. excelsa appears to be the prevalent form. Its occurrence as a sporadic 

 tree in the mountains of central Europe, under the form described as P. alpestris, 



' Cf. Teplouchoff, loc. cit. Korshinsky, in Tentamen Fl. Ross. Orient. 493 (1898), admits that cones like those of P. 

 excelsa are never seen in eastern Russia. At the junction of the rivers Kama and Viatka the woods are said to be composed 

 of both species. Cf. Kihiman, PJl. Stud. Ross. Lapland, 143 (1890), on the variation of the spruce in Finland, Lapland, 

 and northern Scandinavia. Dammer, in Gard. Chron. iv. 480 (1888), may also be consulted, as well as the numerous 

 authorities quoted by Schroter, op. cit. 240 (1898). 



* It is a doubtfiil native of the Kurile Isles, according to Miyabe in Mem. Boston Sac. Nat. Hist. iv. 261 (1894). 



' Flora Afanshuriae, i. 197 (1901). * Siberia in Asia, 233 (1882). 



^ Cf. under P. excelsa, pp. 1347, 1348. 



