Page:TheTreesOfGreatBritainAndIreland vol02B.djvu/88

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
244
The Trees of Great Britain and Ireland

diversifolia, and is remarkable for its limited distribution. It occurs at elevations of 2500 to 3000 feet, usually on dry rocky banks of mountain streams along the Blue Ridge, extending from south-western Virginia through South Carolina to northern Georgia. Sargent states that it occurs either in small groves or mingled with other species, and describes it as a beautiful tree of compact pyramidal habit, with dense dark-green lustrous foliage. Elwes saw it on the Blue Ridge in 1893, and brought home young plants, which, however, died in a year or two.

This tree was discovered in 1850 by Professor L.R. Gibbes. It was first raised in the Arnold Arboretum in 1881, and has proved there quite hardy. It was introduced from thence to England in 1886. There are two or three small specimens in the collection at Kew which are three or four feet in height and have a bushy, spreading habit. This species, judging from the slow rate of growth at Kew, is not likely to attain to timber size in England, and we know of no trees of any size living in this country. (A.H.)

TSUGA BRUNONIANA, Himalayan Hemlock

Tsuga Brunoniana, Carrière, Traité Conif. 188 (1855); Hook. f., Gard. Chron. xxvi. 72, fig. 14 (1886), and Flora Brit. India, v. 654 (1888); Masters, Gard. Chron. xxvi. 500, fig. 101 (1886); Kent, Veitch's Man. Coniferæ, 462 (1900); Gamble, Man. Indian Timbers, 718 (1902); Brandis, Indian Trees, 693 (1906).
Tsuga dumosa, Sargent, Silva N. Amer. xii. 60 (1898).
Pinus dumosa, D. Don, Prod. Fl. Nepal. 55 (1825).
Pinus Brunoniana, Wallich, Pl. Asiat. Rar. iii. 24, t. 247 (1832).
Abies Brunoniana, Lindley, Penny Cyclop. i. 31 (1833).
Abies dumosa, Loudon, Arb. et Frut. Brit. iv. 2325 (1838), and Brandis, Forest Flor. N.W. India, 527 (1874).

A tree forming in the Himalayas, according to Hooker, a stately blunt pyramid, with branches spreading like the cedar, but not so stiff, and drooping gracefully on all sides, attaining 120 feet in height and 28 feet in girth. Incultivation in England it assumes a bushy habit, and never makes a clean stem, the trunk being concealed by the dense pendulous branches.

Bark thick and rough. Branchlets light brown in colour with a short and not very dense pubescence. Leaves long, 1 to 1¼ inch, narrow linear, gradually tapering towards the acute and recurved apex, serrulate in margin; upper surface dark green and deeply grooved; lower surface silvery white, the bands of stomata extending almost to the margins. Buds globose, flattened on the top; scales ovate, acute, pubescent.

Cones sessile, ovoid, an inch long, composed of about twenty-five woody scales, which are nearly orbicular, vertically striate, shining, showing externally a thickened ridge a little distance from and parallel to the thin entire margin; bract concealed. Seed two-thirds the length of the scale, with an oblong-ovate wing, which is decurrent on the outer side of the seed to its base.