rX4 PICEZ, OR SPRUCE TREES 
Nigra and Rubra, which are explained in our de 
scriptions. Its leaves are like the P. Orientalis. 
P, ORIENTALIS.—This tree is.common. enough with 
us, and planters of Conifers are beginning to réawaken 
to its ornamental merits. With its brilliant crimson 
staminate flowers and short leaves it is quite unique 
among the more elderly specimens of the Spruces 
seen with us. A tree planted here in 1845 measures 
close upon 90 ft. in height and 7 ft. 7 in. in girth, 
and this is 21 ft. higher, and 1 in. less in circumference, 
than the champion specimen (Dognersfield, Hants, 
Sir H. Mildmay) mentioned in Trees of Great Britain. 
P. Opovata is still more or less a stranger in our 
land. It is accredited with a propensity to quarrel 
with our climate on account of its too genial warmth. 
If so we can only say that it is a curious taste on its 
part, and an unusual complaint to hear charged 
against our country. 
Its leaves are shorter and more pointed than those 
of our Common Spruce. They appear to spread out 
more from the stem, or, to use a Cypress phrase, look 
“freer at the apex ” than the generality of Spruces. 
Their branchlets are of a greyer colour, and by way 
of being more pubescent than those of our Spruces, 
which when in good health are of a redder hue. 
Their cones are very different. Whereas the usual 
length of a P. Excelsa cone is somewhere about 6 in., 
the cones of the Obovata sent me from Russia measure 
at most but 24 in. The difference in the margin of 
their scales gives a valuable clue to their identity. 
The margins of the cone scales of the P. Obovata are 
round and entire, while those of the P. Excelsa 
are in most cases either one or two pointed. 
The small tree growing here so far promises well, 
and looks particularly happy in its surroundings, 
