10 BULLETIN UNIVERSITY OF MONTANA 



PICEA, SPRUCE. 



Twigs smooth. P. Columbiana. 



Twigs pubescent. P. Engelmanni. 



Blankenship reports Picea alba Link from Belton and other localities, but 

 all the plants so referred are P. Columbiana Lemmon, which replaces P. 

 Parryana in our region. 



Picea Columbiana Lemmon Gard. and Forest 10 183 (1897). White Spruce. 

 Columbian Spruce. Whether this spruce can be separated from the P. alba 

 of the east is still in doubt. The distinctions relied on by Rydberg do not 

 hold, but the smooth twigs clearly separate it from P. Engelmanni, as well 

 as its more narrow and spire-like outline of P. Parryi and habitat, which is 

 that of the white spruce, namely along streams and in wet places, instead 

 of slopes and mountain sides as in P. Engelmanni. The cones generally have 

 entire and thick margined very broadly obovate scales and are narrowly ellip- 

 tical before maturity. After opening they are elliptical and 1-1.5 inches long. 

 The outline of the tree is lanceolate. Loiwer branches drooping and short. 

 Twigs innumerable, white, shiny and smooth. Last year's ones tan colored 

 and smooth, short and rigid, with the cushions not over 2-5 mm. high. All 

 leaves j^ery shortly apiculate, oblique at base and truncate. Bark of tree 

 dark gray and rough to the twigs, lower bark scaly and thin, but the whole 

 tree is without scaly bark up to 6 inches in diameter and is finely roughened 

 all over. The tree is never blue like P. Parryi. It is seldom over 2 feet in 

 diameter and often 100 feet high. The largest tree seen was 12 feet 9 inches 

 around. It is not common, though it is found in all localities up to the sub- 

 alpine. Kalispell, Williams, also Belton. Alta, Lake McDonald. Not on the 

 Atlantic slope. Deer Lodge Valley. 



Picea Engelmanni (Parry) Eng. Trans. St. Louis Acad. 2 212 (1863). Abies 

 Engelmanni Parry same citation. Engelmann's Spruce. This is a tree with 

 oblong outline and rather rounded top, mostly 50 to 75 feet high and 1-2 feet 

 in diameter, much wider and shorter than P. Columbiana. The twigs are 

 pendent, about a foot long. Leaves less rigid, spreading in all directions, 

 acute, slender, mostly nearly straight, about 1 inch long. The cones are 

 elliptical before opening, about 2 inches long and 1 inch wide, about a half 

 longer than P. Columbiana, shortly rounded at both ends. (Scales rather 

 dark, straight, nearly entire in the type to somewhat lacerate, thin and with 

 narrowed tips in ours, not evidently obovate. Twigs reddish and minutely 

 pubescent. This is very abundant near timber line on all the peaks and 

 on subalpine slopes is frequent. Elrod peak, Elrod. It is the only spruce on 

 the Atlantic slope. The wood of both species is compact and hard and 

 tough and nearly white and makes fine lumber. It is shipped as Oregon 

 Fir all over the west. The bark is characteristic, being thin and very flaky 

 and reddish, not forming thick ridges as in the firs, it exudes much resin, but 

 there are few or no 'blisters as in the flrs and is not smooth as in the firs. It 

 is at once separable from Parry's spruce by the pubescent twigs and dark 

 and short cones, while the twigs of the other are smooth, and the cones 

 apple green and often 4 inches long, and the scales are thin and very lacer- 

 ate, with narrow tips. 



TSUGA, HEMLOCK. 



The hemlocks are the most graceful and beautiful of the evergreens. Their 

 tall and spire-like outline, with needle-like tip. and their long and drooping 

 slender branches with quill-like twigs, 2-4 feet long pendent and dangling 

 their clusters of cones in flat wands could be mistaken for the spruces by 

 the casual observer. The trees are mostly 100 to 200 feet high and grow in 

 dark and damp iwoods along rivulets at the bases of the mountains or alpine 

 and are rare. 



Plants of the Middle Temperate zone, cones .5-1 inch long. T. Mertensiana. 



Alpine, cones 1.5-2 inches long. T. heterophylla. 



Tsuga heterophylla (Raf.) Sargent Sylva 12 73 (1898), Abies heterophylla 

 Raf. Atl. Jour. 119 (1832). Western Hemlock. This is a tree with the habit 

 and appearance of the pyramidal forms of Juniperus scopulorum. and also 



