SITKA SPRUCE Iai 
accommodated with pubescent evidences, while the 
Sitka remains equipped with smooth and glabrous 
stems. The cones of these two are obviously unalike. 
Around the Sitka the ground is plentifully strewn 
with soft, featherbed-feeling, light-brown specimens, 
while the cones of the Omorica are only half the size, 
hard and dark-coloured. 
We must not leave the subject of the Sitka without 
referring to the fact that it is reputed to flourish as 
the Willows by the water-courses. The faculty are 
strongly recommending the planting of it in all 
available wet places, and this advice has been carried 
out largely in Ireland by the Government. This 
partiality to damp places, however, cannot be taken 
to prove that as a tree it is incapable of growing on 
drier ground. The big Sitka here (Stanage Park, 
Radnorshire), which measured in 1916. 126 ft. high 
and 12 ft. girth five feet from ground, grows upon a 
Ludlow rock geological formation some 800 ft. above 
sea-level. Possibly, if its underground secrets were 
unearthed, it would be found that a percolating 
water-spring beneath ministered to its presumed 
aquatic wants. Its large and buttressed base, - its 
protruding-out-of-the-ground roots, are very charac 
teristic of its kind, and its natural inclination to a 
watery base. 
P. HonpoEnsis AND P, AJANENSIS.—As between 
the Hondo and Ajan Spruce there exists mystification, 
and consequently a good deal of botanical argument 
as to “ what’s what ” and “ which is which ’’ has been 
waged. The Ajan Spruce is the representative of 
the northern island of Japan, while the Hondo 
is the representative of the main island of that 
country. 
Perhaps the question may be set at rest between 
these two, and the occupation of the controversialists 
