28 



TREES OF NORTH AMERICA 



tlu' s:\ine shoot. Fruit >l>lon<;r-conical, acute, oblique at the base, sessile, usually 

 erect and stron<'ly incurved, l.\'--' loi>j;< dull piiiplo or yreon when fully grown, 

 beeoniing light yellow and lustrous, with thin still' scales armed with minute incurved 

 often deciduous prickles ; seeds nearly triangular, full and nmnded on the sides, '^ 

 long, with an almost black roughcnrd shell and wings broadest at the middle, full 

 and rounded at the apex, ^' long, ^' wide. 



A tree, frequently 70 high, with a straight trunk sometimes free of brunches 

 for '20"-,'U)'' and rarely exceeding 2'^ in diameter, long spreading branches form- 

 ing an open symmetrical head, and slender tough ilexible pale yellow-green branch- 

 lets turning dark purple during their first winter and darker the following year; 

 often not more than 2()''-3(r tall, with Ji stem 10'-12' in diameter ; generally 

 fruiting when only a few years old ; sometimes shrubby with several low slender 

 stems. Bark of the trunk thin, dark brown slightly tinged with red, very irregu- 

 larly divided into narrow rounded connected ridges se})arating on the surface into 

 small thick closely appressed scales. "Wood light, soft, not strong, close-grained, 

 clear pale brown or rarely orange color, with thick nearl}' white sapwood ; used for 

 fuel and occasionally for railway-ties and posts ; occasionally manufactured into 

 lumber. 



Distribution. From Nova Scotia to the valley of the Athabasca River and down 

 the jNlackenzie to about latitude ()o north, ranging southward to the coast of Maine, 





ri(i 29 



northern New Hampshire and Vermont, northern New York, the southern shores 

 of Lake Michigan, northern Illinois, and central ISIinnesota ; abundant in central 

 Michigan, covering tracts of barren lands ; common and of large size in the region 

 north of Lake Superior ; most abundant and of its greatest size west of Lake AVinni- 

 peg and north of the Saskatchewan, here often spreading over great areas of sandy 

 sterile soil. 



28. Finns glabra. "Walt. Spruce Fine. Cedar Fine. 



Leaves soft, slender, dark green, l^'-3' long, marked by numerous rows of sto- 

 mata, deciduous at the end of their second and in the spring of their third year. 

 Flowers : staminate in short crowded clusters, yellow; pistillate raised on slender 

 slightly ascending peduncles. Fruit single or in clusters of 2 or 3, retlexed on short 

 stout stalks, subglobose to oblong-ovate, ^'-2' long, becoming reddish brown and 

 rather lustrous, with thin slightly concave scales armed with minute straight or 

 incurved usually deciduous prickles; seeds nearly triangular, full and rounded on 



