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86 The Trees of Great Britain and Ireland
Farther north, according to Maximowicz, 1 it extends throughout the territory of the
lower Amur and the coast province facing the Sea of Ochotsk, reaching its northern
limit in the interior in the Stanovoi mountains about latitude 55 50', and on the coast
at Ajan, lat. 56 27'. Schmidt 2 says that thick forests of Picea ajanensis occur in
the lower Amur and in the coast territory. A mountain at 1000 feet in the
Amgun valley was clothed with a thick mossy wood of this spruce, in the shadow
of which snow still lay on the 3Oth May. On the crest of the Bureja range it occurs
as a low prostrate shrub. It descends very seldom to the river banks. Middendorff
also notes that it is confined to the hills on the coast of the Sea of Ochotsk.
Occasionally it grows on swampy flats in Amurland.
Schmidt describes the bark as being moderately rough and divided into generally
6-angled plates, about an inch in diameter and £ to i line in thickness ; and that
the form and colour of the leaves are very variable, their points being either
acute or obtuse.
In the island of Saghalien, in its south-western part, there is a coniferous forest
composed of Picea ajanensis and Abies sachalinensis, which clothes the slopes of
the mountains up to 800 feet on the coast, and higher in the interior, where even
the lofty crests are covered with dark forests of these two species.
In the Kurile Isles 3 this species is confined to the three islands north of
Yezo, namely Kunashiri, Shikotan, and Etorofu, reaching its northern limit in
the last named. In Shikotan it forms with Abies sachalinensis a dense mixed forest,
which in habit and height and cover of the ground strikingly resembles the coniferous
forests at moderate elevations in Germany. The cones borne by the tree in this
island are, however, small in size, and the tree itself does not attain its maximum
dimensions.
In Yezo, Mayr reports that he has seen trees 130 feet in height, and considers
reliable the reports of the Japanese foresters that it occasionally attains even
160-200 feet. It occurs in all the mountains of Yezo, only reaching the coast in
the west of the island, where it is found in cold, marshy localities immediately
behind the dunes, being only separated from the sea by a growth of Rosa rugosa
and shrubby Quercus dentata. The important forests of it lie in the western and
central mountains of Yezo, and also in the high ranges of Kitami, Kushiro, and
Nemoro, where it forms mixed woods with the Saghalien silver fir and Picea
Glehnii.
INTRODUCTION
We do not know that any plants of the continental Ajan spruce have been
grown in Europe.
John Gould Veitch visited Hakodate in 1860, and sent home specimens and seeds
of a weakly form of the Yezo Picea ajanensis, which was described by Lindley 4 as a
1 Maximowicz, Primitice Fierce Amurensis, 261, 392 (1859). See also Regel, Tentamen Fierce Ussuriensis, 1 36 (1861).
2 Schmidt, " Reisen in Amurland und Saghalien," in Mem. Acad. Imp. Sc. St. Petersburg, VII. series, xii. No. 2, pp. 15,
20, 63, 98 (1868).
3 Mayr, Inc. cit. p. 102.
4 Card. Chron. 1 861, p. 22. This is Picea ajanensis, var. microsperma, Masters, Card. Chron. 1880, i. 115.
Picea
distinct species, Abies microsperma. Plants raised from the seed " turned out to
be unsuitable for the climate of this country." 1 This form, according to Mayr,
and so far as I can judge myself, can hardly rank even as a variety, and is not
in cultivation at the present time.
Maries 2 visited Yezo in 1879 and sent home specimens, now preserved in
the Kew Herbarium, and seeds of the true Picea ajanensis from that island;
and young trees should accordingly be in cultivation in this country. This plant
was kept separate by Messrs. Veitch at first, under the name Abies yezoensis.
Maries considered the Yezo spruce to be quite distinct in habit and aspect from
the two spruces which he had seen on Fujiyama (Alcockiana and hondoensis).
Mayr informed me last year that the Yezo spruce was not introduced into
Europe until 1891 ; and that most of the trees on the Continent passing under
the name of Picea ajanensis belong to Picea hondoensis. The specimens which
have been sent me from old trees of reputed P. ajanensis in England also belong
to that species. (A. H.)
On account of the heavy floods which occurred in July 1904, I did not get
far enough north in Hokkaido to see this tree at its best, but in the State
forests of Shari, Kutami, and Kushiro, it occurs in great masses, and is one of
the principal economic products of the island. I saw it thinly scattered in forests
of deciduous trees between Sapporo and Asahigawa, where it was of no great
size, and in the forest round the volcanic crater-lake of Shikotsu in the south-east
of Hokkaido it formed, here and there, nearly pure forests of small extent, mixed
more or less with Picea Glehnii and A bies sachalinensis, at an elevation of 1000 to
2000 feet. The vegetation in these forests was quite unlike anything that I saw
in Central Japan, the ground being covered with a dense layer of humus, and in
the more shady places two or three species of Pyrola were abundant. Daphne,
Gaultheria, Ledum, and other plants not seen elsewhere occurred, with curious
terrestrial orchids and many ferns. The trees rarely exceeded 80 feet in height
by 4 to 6 feet in girth, but higher up near the lake I measured one as much as
100 by 9 feet.
The general appearance of the tree is very like that of P. sitchensis, though
I did not notice that the roots became buttressed, which is probably only the
case in wet soil. The natural reproduction is good, but the seedlings grow
slowly at first and seemed to thrive best in shade. The Japanese name is
Eso-Matsu.
TIMBER
The wood of this tree is soft, but probably as good as that of other spruces.
I passed the night at a factory in the forest where it was being cut up into thin
slices for export to Osaka, where large quantities are used for making matchboxes.
It is also employed for boat masts and other purposes, and is worth in Tokyo about
rod. per cubic foot. On account of its softness, lightness, and fineness of grain,
1 Kent, in Veitch's Man. Conifenc, lot. cit.
2 See Veitch's Man. Conifers, ed. i. p. 72 (1881).