ft* 
4 
PINETUM BRITANNICUM. 
in proportion, and occupy much more of the leaf than on the other variety; and although stunted leaves 
of the common Spruce may be found almost as acute, their proportions are not the same, as may be 
seen by comparing the above figure with fig. 3, from a stunted leaf of a branch of Spruce. 
Loudon doubts whether such a stunted variety as this was ever found in a bed 
of seedlings, and thinks it more probable that it is a continuation by cuttings of one of 
those bird-nestdike monstrosities that are occasionally found on all trees. 
It is readily propagated by cuttings, and is the best Fir that one can have for 
growing in a pot. What a treasure it would have been to the Chinese ! 
There are many other horticultural varieties. These are mere individual idiosyncrasies, and do not 
deserve special notice; a mere allusion to their names, which will suggest their qualities, will be sufficient. 
We find among them — Abies excelsa pendula, monstrosa, gigantea, tenuifolia , nana, pygmcea, stricla, 
mucronata, elegans, columnaris, Sibirica, denudata, virgata, conica, dumosa, inflexa , Cranstoni, attenuata , 
concinna, pumila, miniata , procumbens, parvata, microphylla , gracilis , phylicoides, variegata, aurea, inte- 
grisquamis , &c. 
Nowadays every trifling variety is seized upon by nurserymen, and dubbed a species. Those above 
enumerated, we believe, have all been dubbed, if not on carpet consideration, on some consideration not 
more worthy. The varieties nigra, Carpathica , and Clanbrasiliana are the only ones we know deserving 
of recognition. There is another Spruce from the extreme north of Finland which some consider a variety 
of this species ; but this we regard as a distindf species, and shall give a separate account of it. It has 
been described by Nylander under the name A. medioxema , and is chiefly distinguished from this by the 
smaller leaves and cones, and by the scales of the latter being rounded instead of truncate. It may be the 
same as the variety called by Carriere integrisquamis, as that has the scales rounded too; but as Carriere 
gives no other character of his variety, nor mentions its country, we are not in a position to make out its 
identity with medioxema, and must therefore leave it standing as he has put it—a variety of excelsa. In 
all cones, as already said, before they have reached maturity, scales with rounded margins will be met with. 
Loudon (“Arboretum,” iv. p. 2295) mentions some other varieties, which are apparently no longer in 
existence; but we quote his statement, to place the record of them alongside the other information on the 
subjedt. He says :— 
Fig. 28. 
“ Bose mentions a variety which was cultivated in the Royal Nurseries at Paris, and had been sent thither from the Vosges. It had the 
leaves flatter and more pointed than the common Spruce, and different cones. Bose says that this kind might perhaps form a distindt species, but 
that the plant was torn up when the Royal Nursery in which it grew was destroyed, and he had neglected previously to describe it. Hayes 
speaks of a seminal variety of the Spruce, which has been denominated the long-coned Cornish Fir, the cones being frequently nearly a foot long, 
and of which, in the year 1790, there was a fine tree in the park of Avondale, in the county of Wicklow (“ Pract. Treat.,” p. 165). According to 
Gartner, the species is exhibited in two forms, called the White and Red Norway Spruce, one with pale and the other with deep coloured cones, 
but the timber of both is white.” 
Linnaeus, in his “ Flora Suecica,” notices four varieties of the common form. They are as 
follows—viz.: 
“ 1. Abies procera, ramis a caudice caulem prosequentibus, folio crassiore, cortice subrubro.— Lind. Wiksb. 1. 
“ 2. Abies procera, viminalis ramis caudicem prosequentibus reflexis, folio tenero, cortice subrubro.— Lind. Wiksb. 1. 
“ 3. Abies Candida, elatior ramis rarioribus, folio tenui, cortice subcinereo. — Lind. Wiksb. 1. 
“4. Abies pyramidalis, ramis ad caudicem crebris frutescens.— Lind. Wiksb. 1.” 
The difference between these different kinds seems slight, and chiefly confined to the disposition of 
the branches. The first has them growing upright, and a thickish leaf and reddish bark. The second 
has the branches twiggy and reflexed, with a slight leaf and reddish bark. The third has lower branches, 
a slender leaf, and subcinereous bark; and the fourth is pyramidal, with close branches, and bearing much 
fruit. 
All 
