Picea 1343 



from Silesia and Thuringia, which bears a few undivided branches at the base, the 

 upper part being without branches. 



14. Var. globosa, Berg, in Schrift. Naturf. Ges. Univ. Dorpat, ii. 19, 20 

 (1887). 



In this variety, normal growth is replaced by numerous close branches, irregularly 

 dividing into a great number of branchlets, similar to a witches' broom, and forming 

 either a globose bush without any leader, or a conical bush with a leader arising out 

 of a globose base. I saw a remarkable example of the globose spruce in 1909 at 

 the Forestry Experimental Station, Zurich. Seedlings had been raised, one quarter 

 of which had reverted to the habit of the ordinary spruce, the others being very 

 various in appearance and intermediate between the parent form and the normal 

 habit of the species.-' 



In the true dwarf forms ^ of the spruce, the branching is regular, but the 

 growth of the shoots is very small, and the needles are very short. The most 

 important are : — 



15. Var. Clanbrassiliana, Carriere, in Jacques and Hdrincq, Man. Gdn. Plantes, 

 iv. 341 (1857). 



Abies excelsa, De Candolle, var. Clanbrassiliana, Loudon, Arb. et. Frut. Brit. iv. 2294 (1838). 



A compact low dense globose bush, seldom higher than 5 or 6 ft. ; branches 

 and branchlets, much shortened ; leaves about ^ to ^ in. long ; buds very red in colour. 

 This is supposed to have been found on the Moira estate, near Belfast, about the 

 end of the eighteenth century, when it was introduced into England by Lord Clan- 

 brassil. This dwarf form has been found growing wild in Thuringia, and near Stock- 

 holm, and in Jemtland in Sweden. It is always sterile, and is propagated by cuttings. 



Elwes found at Tullymore Park, Co. Down, a large bush of this form measuring 

 10 ft. high and 28 ft. in circumference, which he was informed was either the original 

 or a part of it, and was supposed to be about one hundred and fifty years old. A 

 specimen at Aldenham has reverted to the normal type, and is now growing rapidly 

 into an erect tree. 



16. Var. tabulaiformis, Carriere, Product, et Fixat. Varidtds, 52 (1865), Conif. 

 ZZZ (1867). 



A prostrate form, with slender branchlets spreading horizontally over the 

 ground. This is said by Carriere to have been taken, probably as a cutting, 

 from a witches' broom, growing on an ordinary spruce in the Trianon. 

 Torssander^ found a similar plant in Sodermanland in Sweden, thirty years old, and 

 only 20 in. high. 



17. Other dwarf forms have been named, as vaxs. pumila,^ pygmcsa,^ Gregoryana^ 

 Maxwelli^ etc. 



1 Cf. Engler, in Mitt. Schweh. Forst. Versuch. viii. pt. ii. 117, figs. 8, 9 (1904)- 



2 See under IVitches' Brooms, p. 1345. ' In Sodermanland Botan. Notiser, 1897, p. 169. 

 * Beissner, Nadelhohkunde, 365 (1891). ' Loudon, op. cit. 2295 (1838). 



« Said by Gordon, Pinetum, 9 (1875) to have been raised in the Cirencester Nursery. 



»■ Originated as a seedling in Messrs. Maxwell's nursery, Geneva, New York. Cf. Woods and Forests, 1884, p. 502, 

 and Rehder, in Bailey, Cycl. Amer. Sort. iii. 1333, fig. 179^ (^9°'^)- 



VI ^ 



