P. BICOLOR AND ALCOCKIANA III 
dence between a human celebrity and a vernacular 
or a descriptive rendering of title. In both cases, 
some even modern authorities call it the one, others 
the other, a state of affairs which offers to all a happy 
and unconcerned freedom of tongue in any discussion 
that may arise upon it. . 
The name Bicolor was bestowed upon it because 
it broke away from the traditions of the true Spruces, 
and exhibited conspicuous white bands of stomata 
upon only half of its surfaces (for it is a four- 
angled-leaf tree) ; on the other halves the stomata, 
though they are there, are sufficiently invisible to 
render a green effect. These white and green effects 
are—it must be presumed—responsible for the Bi- 
color name. If this were not sufficient, the marked 
contrast of colour, as between the creamy or pale 
primrose-white shoots of the year, and the dark-red, 
cherry-coloured shoots of that preceding, carries on 
the ‘‘ of two colours ” name and tradition with great 
- emphasis, and suggests a colour scheme of as marked 
a contrast as that between the red flank and white 
face of a prize Hereford cow. 
Upon many descriptive points in writing the P. 
Bicolor and our Common Spruce read much alike. 
The stomata differences do not convey any very 
illuminating clue to the ordinary observer, even 
under the microscope. It is this dense, close-crowded 
foxtail growth of the leaves that makes you aware 
you are looking at something out of the common 
in the Spruce line. Possibly it may look like our 
old friend, the P. Excelsa, at the first glance, 
but a second look shows you a new face of foreign 
features. 
Most of the trees that lay a claim to the name 
Bicolor, or Alcockiana, are in reality Hondoensis, 
and this is due to some such dull and sublunary 
prosaic mistake as a luggage label going wrong in a 
