Picea 1367 



with the deodar. Grown in dense forest the stems are often free from branches to 

 a great height, crowned by a conical pyramid of foliage with pendulous branches. 

 In this condition, it produces seed at intervals of three or four years, and in small 

 quantity. The rank undergrowth consists of Strobi/antkes, small bamboos, rasp- 

 berries, balsams, and other plants, which render natural reproduction of seedlings rare 

 and difficult. Clear cutting and artificial regeneration have been found to be the 

 most successful modes of treating these forests. This spruce is attacked in the 

 Himalayas by the aphis, Chermes abietis, which is common on the European spruce, 

 and produces cone-like excrescences on the twigs, A fungus, Peridermium incarcerans, 

 Cooke, often occurs as curious tassel-like orange bunches on the branchlets. The 

 leaves are attacked by another fungus, ^cidium Thomsoni} (A. H.) 



Cultivation 



P. Smithiana was introduced into cultivation in 18 18 by Dr. Govan of Cupar, 

 who gave the seed to the Earl of Hopetoun, from which the first trees were raised 

 at Hopetoun House, near Edinburgh. It is a thriving tree in many parts of the 

 British Isles ; and though the young shoots are liable to be nipped by frost, this does 

 not seem to do the tree permanent injury. It does not, however, seem to succeed 

 on limestone soil. 



The tallest specimen^ I have seen in England is at Melbury, where, in 1906, 

 I measured one 85 to 90 ft. high and 8 ft. 10 in. in girth. (Plate 345.) 



At Carclew a tree was reported^ in 1891 as 80 ft. high, but when I measured it 

 in 1905 it was 86 ft. by 7 ft. 9 in. At Pencarrow Mr. Bartlett measured a perfect 

 specimen planted by Sir W. Molesworth about 1850, which in 1907 was 57 ft. by 

 6 ft. 7 in. At Bicton in 1902 I measured one 65 ft. by 6 ft. 9 in. At Redleaf, 

 Kent, in 1907 a tree 75 ft. by 9 ft. had many cones on the lower branches, which 

 rested on the ground. At Walcot there is a fine tree 60 ft. by 5^ ft. 



At Barton, Bury St. Edmunds, there are two fine trees, one of which was 

 84 ft. high by 7 ft. i in. in girth in 1904, the other 'j'j ft. by an inch less in girth. 

 These trees were raised from seeds sent by Lady Napier, to whom they had been 

 given by Wallich, and the seedlings were planted out in 1843, The trees were 

 not injured in the least by the severe winter of 1 860-1 861, and commenced to 

 bear cones for some years before 1 869, having a very abundant crop in that year,* 

 A tree at Hardwicke House, Suffolk, planted later than those at Barton, was 

 measured by Sir Hugh Beevor in 1904 as 'jTy ft. by 7 ft. 



In Wales the largest I have seen, a tree at Margam Park, was 81 ft. by 6| ft. 

 in 1907, 



In Scotland there are many good specimens, of which those at Hopetoun 

 are the oldest, having been raised from seed sent to the Earl of Hopetoun by 



' Described and figured by Berkeley in Card. Chron. 1852, p. 627. 



2 The Picea Smithiana reported in Card. Chron. 1869, p. 713, to be growing at Shelsley Walsh in the Teme Valley in 

 Worcestershire, is P, excelsa. Cf. p. 1 341. 



^ Joum. R. Hort. Soc. xiv. 488 (1892). * Bunbury, Arboretum Notes, 134. 



VI F 



