Picea 



1341 



The "Cornish fir" which was mentioned by Hayes ^ as growing in 1794 at 

 Avondale in Co. Wicklow, was pendulous in habit and bore large cones, sometimes 

 nearly a foot in length. The remarkable pendulous spruce ^ at Shelsley Walsh, in 

 the Teme Valley in Worcestershire, bears cones 9 in. in length, and appears to be 

 identical with Hayes' variety. 



8. Var. columnaris, Carriere, Conif. 248 (1855). Narrowly columnar in 

 habit, with short horizontal branches, clothed with dense short branchlets and 

 foliage. 



This form, which has been known a long time in cultivation, exists in the wild 

 state in Switzerland, where six trees are known by Schroter in the five localities of 

 Stanserhorn, Stockhorn, la Brdvine, Chavannes, and la Berboleuse, all at high 

 altitudes between 4000 and 5800 ft. 



The columnar spruce ' is to be carefully distinguished from the narrow spruce, 

 known as the spitzfichte,^ in which the habit does not result as a sport, but is due to 

 a severe climate, which checks the growth of the branches. The spitzfichte is similar 

 to the columnar spruce in form, being narrowly cylindrical, but the stem is sparingly 

 clad with short branches, wide apart, and forming a thin crown of foliage. The 

 spitzfichte is never seen at low levels in the Alps and Jura, but occurs near the 

 timber line, often forming small groves in exposed situations. This climatic 

 form is much more common in P. obovata in Lapland, Finland, and northern 

 Scandinavia. 



9. V^x. pyramidata, Carriere, 247 (1855). 



Var. siricta, Schroter, op. cit. 158 (1898). 



Branches ascending at a narrow angle, forming a nearly fastigiate tree. Trees 

 of this kind are occasionally seen in the forests of central Europe, and are rarely 

 found in the seed bed in nurseries. 



ro. Var. strigosa, Christ, in Garden and Forest, ix. 252 (1896). 



A form with numerous slender horizontal branchlets, spreading from all sides 

 of the branches, giving the tree the habit of the common larch. This variety occurs 

 in one locality in the canton of St. Gall in Switzerland. 



II. Var. eremita, Carriere, in Jacques and Hdrincq, Man. Gdn. Plantes, iv. 



341 (1857). 



A tree of slender pyramidal habit with numerous branches, directed upwards at 



a small angle with the stem, short stout branchlets, large buds, and distant short 

 thick sharp-pointed needles. 



Var. Remonti, said by Kent ^ to be a dwarf modification of this, is described 

 by Masters® as of dense compact pyramidal habit, recalling that of Cupressus 

 Lawsoniana, var. erecta vindis. 



1 Planting, 165 (1794). It is first mentioned apparently in London Catalogtu of Trees [\'Jlo\s& the long-coned Cornish 

 fir, said to have been "brought from America some years previously and planted in Devon and Cornwall." 



2 Erroneously referred to P. Smithiana (as P. Morinda) in Card. Chron. 1869, p. 713. and xix. 132 (1896). 



3 Dr. Christ, in Garden and Forest, ix. 252 (1896), uses the term columnar spruce for the spitzfichte, which is not stricUy 



accurate. • o / o 



* First named and described by Berg, mjahrbuch K. Sachs. Akad. Forst. Tharand. xm. 83 (1859). 



6 Veitch's Man. Conif. 433 ("900). ' 1° ^'"•'^- C'^'"""- "'• 578 (1890). 



