the trees of great britain & ireland - Facsimile Books & other digitally ...
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84 The Trees <strong>of</strong> Great Britain and Ireland<br />
destructive, it is to be feared that unless special measures are taken for its protection<br />
by <strong>the</strong> State <strong>of</strong> Oregon this very beautiful tree may become extinct.<br />
The timber, which I only know from a specimen in <strong>the</strong> Jesup Collection <strong>of</strong><br />
North American Woods, preserved in <strong>the</strong> American Museum <strong>of</strong> Natural History at<br />
New York, is said by Sargent to be considerably heavier than that <strong>of</strong> o<strong>the</strong>r<br />
American spruces, s<strong>of</strong>t, close-grained, with a satiny surface, <strong>the</strong> sapwood hardly<br />
distinguishable. The specimen alluded to is 13^ inches in diameter under <strong>the</strong> bark<br />
at 166 years old. (H. J. E.)<br />
Picea<br />
PICEA A JAN ENS IS, AJAN SPRUCE<br />
Picea ajanensis, Fischer, ex Lindley and Gordon, Trans. Hort. S<strong>of</strong>.v. 2 12 (1850), and in Middendorff,<br />
JReise, Florula Ochotensis, 8 7, tt 22-24 (1856); Masters, Jour. Linn. Soc. (Bot.), xviii. 508<br />
(1880), and Card. Chron. 1 880, xiii. 115, and xiv. 427, with figures; Mayr, Monograph der<br />
Abietineen des Jap. Reiches, 5 3, 102, t. iv. (1890); Kent, in Veitch's Man. Conifera, 4 25 (1900).<br />
Picea ajanensis, var. microsperma, Masters, Jour. Linn. Soc. (Bot.), xviii. 509 (1880).<br />
Picea jesoensis, Carrifere, Traite Gen. Conif. 2 55 (1855).<br />
Abies ajanensis, Lindley and Gordon, loc. fit. ( 1850).<br />
Abies jezoensis, Siebold et Zuccarini, Flora Japonica? ii. 19, t. no (exparte) ( 1844); Veitch, Man.<br />
Conifera, ed. i, p. 72 (1881).<br />
A tree, attaining in Yezo 100-150 feet in height. Bark like that <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> common<br />
European spruce, grey, and composed <strong>of</strong> irregularly quadrangular scales which do<br />
not fall <strong>of</strong>f. Branchlets shining, glabrous, yellow, never becoming reddish. Free<br />
part <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> pulvini long, directed backwards on branchlets <strong>of</strong> old <strong>trees</strong>, not widened<br />
or channelled at <strong>the</strong>ir bases on <strong>the</strong> upper surface <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> branchlets, persistent on<br />
old branchlets. Buds broadly conic, with ovate scales rounded in margin, showing<br />
on opening <strong>the</strong> young leaves tinged with red. Leaves flattened, thin, blunt, or ending<br />
in a short point, slightly keeled on both surfaces; ventral surface green without<br />
stomata; dorsal surface silvery white with two broad bands <strong>of</strong> stomata. Cones<br />
purple when young, brownish when ripe, straight, oblong, tapering at each end,<br />
2 to 3 inches long by nearly i inch wide ; scales narrowly oblong-oval, coriaceous, erose,<br />
and denticulate in margin ; bracts minute, concealed, broad-oblong, slightly narrowed<br />
below, <strong>the</strong>ir upper rounded denticulate edge giving <strong>of</strong>f abruptly an apiculus. Seed<br />
with a wing, which is twice or thrice as long as <strong>the</strong> seed itself.<br />
IDENTIFICATION. (See Picea hondoensis.}<br />
DISTRIBUTION<br />
Picea ajanensis appears to be confined to Manchuria, Amurland, that<br />
part <strong>of</strong> Eastern Siberia which faces <strong>the</strong> sou<strong>the</strong>rn half <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> Sea <strong>of</strong> Ochotsk,<br />
Saghalien, <strong>the</strong> three sou<strong>the</strong>rn isles <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> Kurile group, and Yezo. The spruce <strong>of</strong><br />
Central China, which has been identified with it in Index Florce Sinensis, ii. 553, has<br />
pubescent shoots, and is probably identical with Picea brachytila, Masters. The<br />
accounts <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> Ajan spruce on <strong>the</strong> continent <strong>of</strong> Asia are <strong>of</strong> ancient date, <strong>the</strong> only<br />
recent one being that in Russian by Komarov, 2 who states that it grows abundantly<br />
with species <strong>of</strong> Abies and Pinus koraiensis in mountain woods in all <strong>the</strong> provinces<br />
<strong>of</strong> Manchuria. It has not, however, been collected <strong>the</strong>re by any British travellers.<br />
1 The figures given by Siebold represent (i) a flowering twig which came from a garden in Tokyo, and was probably,<br />
according to Mayr, Picea hondoensis; and (2) a branch with cones, copied from a Japanese drawing <strong>of</strong> Picea ajanensis from<br />
Yero. The description applies to two species, and <strong>the</strong> name jezoensis cannot stand. The synonymy is very involved, but,<br />
accepting Mayr's view, <strong>the</strong> facts are clear enougb. The Hondo spruce was first distinguished clearly by Mayr, and <strong>the</strong>refore<br />
receives his name Picea hondoensis. The Vezo and Amurland spruces are <strong>the</strong> same species, and receive <strong>the</strong> name Picea<br />
ajanensis, first given by Fischer.<br />
2 Komarov, Flora Manshuria, i. 200 (1901).