1386 The Trees of Great Britain and Ireland 



This species, the exact distribution of which has not yet been clearly defined, 

 ranges from Wyoming^ and western Montana northward to Alberta and British 

 Columbia. It occurs in the Rocky Mountains at lower elevations than P. Engelmanni, 

 extending from 3000 to 5000 ft. The type specimen was collected at Bankhead, 

 Alberta, by Stewardson Brown ; and I have received from Macoun specimens from 

 the neighbourhood of Banff, in the same province. Rehder states that this spruce 

 near Banff occasionally attains 160 ft. in height, and forms extensive forests, in one 

 of which he took a fine photograph, which shows well the habit of the tree, and is 

 reproduced by Mayr ^ in his article on the white spruce. P. albertiana is the white 

 spruce referred to by Sargent ^ as a native of " the Rocky Mountains of Alberta, 

 British Columbia, and northern Montana, where it lines the banks of streams and 

 lakes up to 5000 ft. elevation, attaining a large size, and sending up tall spire-like 

 heads of dark foliage." 



In Montana this spruce is not found on the east side of the continental divide, 

 but is common in the Flathead'' region, where it forms a low tree in marshy 

 situations ; but on moist alluvial soil, in mixture with the Douglas fir, western larch, and 

 Thuya plicata, it attains large dimensions. It usually occurs in small groups in these 

 mixed forests, occupying the moister ground, and bearing considerable shade. The 

 largest tree which I measured, growing near Nyack on the Northern Pacific railway, 

 was 150 ft. by 10 ft. A tree 114 ft. by 4 ft. 9 in. showed, when cut down, 114 

 annual rings; another, 15 in. in diameter, showed 160 rings, the bark being only 

 \ in. thick. 



It is possible that the trees referred to P. Engelmanni, in Idaho, Washington, 

 and Oregon, may wholly or in part belong to P. albertiana ; and a further study of 

 the spruces in western America is desirable, as the variability in P. albertiana 

 points possibly to hybridisation with Engelmann's spruce. 



This spruce is the finest species in North America, except P. sitchensis, and is 

 worth a trial as an ornamental tree. It was introduced into England by Elwes, who 

 received seeds from Mr. J. M, Macoun of Ottawa in 1906, which have produced 

 plants, the largest of which in 19 12 were about 18 in. high, and which have been 

 distributed to several places in England and Scotland. According to Rehder, it was 

 sent by Baron von Furstenberg to Germany in 1907. (A. H.) 



' Britton and Shafer, N. Amer. Trees, 58 (1908), give Wyoming as a habitat ; but I have seen no specimens. 

 2 Fremdldnd. Wald- u. Parkbaume, fig. loi (1906). This photograph is also reproduced in Moller's Z)««A Gartn. Zeit. 

 190S, p. 117. 



' Silva N. Amer. xii. 39 (1898J. 



' The spruce described as P. Engelmanni hy Whitford, in Bot. Gas. xxxix. 196 (1905). 



