1366 The Trees of Great Britain and Ireland 



PICEA SMITHIANA, Western Himalayan or Morinda Spruce 



Picea Smithiana, Boissier, Fl. Orient, v. 700 (1884); Kent, Veitch's Man. Conif. 454 (1900). 

 Picea Morinda, Link, in Linnaa, xv. 522 (1841); Masters, in Gard. Chron. xxiv. 393, fig. 85 (1885); 



Hooker, Flora Br. India, v. 653 (1888) (in part); Gamble, Indian Timbers, 716 (1902); 



Brandis, Indian Trees, 692 (1906); Clinton-Baker, Illust. Conif. ii. 40 (1909). 

 Picea Khutrow, Carrifere, Conif. 258 (1855). 

 Pinus Smithiana, Wallich, PL Asiat. Far. iii. 24, t. 246 (1832). 

 Pinus Khutrow, Royle, Illust. Him. Plants, 353, t. 84 (1839). 



Abies Smithiana, Lindley, in. Penny Cycl. i. 31 (1833); Loudon, Arb. et Frut. Brit. iv. 2317 (1838). 

 Abies Khutrow, Loudon, Trees and Shrubs, 1032 (1842). 

 Abies Morinda, Nelson (Senilis), Pinacece, 49 (1866). 



A tree, attaining in the Himalayas over 200 ft. in height and 20 ft. in girth. 

 Bark greyish brown, divided by shallow fissures into small rounded or quadrangular 

 scales. Young branchlets grey, shining, glabrous. Buds about \ in. long, spindle- 

 shaped or ovoid, acute at the apex, brownish, resinous ; scales numerous, densely 

 imbricated, rounded at the apex ; terminal bud girt at the base with a ring of acuminate 

 keeled scales. Lateral branches always pendulous, with the leaves radially arranged 

 and directed outwards and towards the apex of the branchlet at an acute angle. 

 Leaves long and slender, about \\ in, long and ^ in. broad, incurved, tapering 

 towards the apex, which ends in a slender cartilaginous point ; obscurely 4-angled, 

 with about two lines of stomata on each of the four sides. 



Staminate flowers, about i in. long and \ in. in diameter, cylindrical, obtuse, 

 light yellow ; anther connective orbicular, crenate. 



Cones, 4 to 6 in. long, \\ lo 2 in. in diameter, cylindrical, narrowed towards 

 the base, obtuse at the apex ; bright green and smooth when growing ; shining brown 

 when mature; scales about an inch wide, broadly obovate from a cuneate base, 

 smooth, convex, rounded and entire in margin ; bract obsolete. Seed dark brown, 

 \ in. long, with the wing f in. long ; wing spatulate, broadest near the truncate 

 denticulate apex. 



P. Smithiana occurs throughout the western Himalayas, between 7000 and 

 1 1,000 ft. elevation, being common from Garhwal to Kashmir, and also occurring 

 in Gilgit, Chitral, and Kafiristan. It extends westwards to Afghanistan, where 

 Aitchison found it in the Kuram and Hariab district, between 8000 and 11,000 ft., 

 occasionally extending as high as 12,000 ft., where it struggles for existence with 

 Pinus excelsa. According to Gamble, it is a very fine tree in the Himalayas, often 

 attaining a greater height than the deodar, but probably never equalling the latter 

 in girth. Large trees measured near Mundali in Jaunsar were 175 to 215 ft. in 

 length and ig to 23 ft, in girth. ^ It forms mixed forests with Abies Pindrow, which 

 cover mainly the northern and western slopes of the mountains, usually between 

 7500 and 8500 ft. In these forests the spruce is more common on the drier ridges, 

 the silver fir growing in the moister ravines. P. Smithiana also forms mixed forests 



1 I am informed by Sir G. Watt that a tree, recorded by Sir E, Buck, near Nagkunda, measured no less than 250 ft. 

 high, Cf. Frontispiece of Vol. V.— H. J. E. 



