274 NEBRASKA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



3. Leaves about 2 or 3 inches long; small tree, 



Mugho Pine {Pinus nwntana) 



4. Leaves about 3 or 4 inches long Austrian Pine {Pinus austriaca) 



5. Leaves about 5 or 6 inches long Norway Pine {Pinus resinosa) 



B. Leaves long, needle-shaped, stout, in threes. 

 Leaves about 3 or 4 inches long (some in twos), 



Bull Pine (Pijiiis ponderosa) 



C. Leaves long, needle-shaped, slender, in fives, 



White Pine (Pinus strobus) 



Try this little key on the pines you find in the parlts of your town, 

 or the dooryards and other private grounds, and you will soon have no 

 difficulty in telling what kind you have before you. 



Now try the spruces, in which the leaves stand one in a place, and 

 are short and needle shaped. In most of our spruces the leaves stand 

 out all around the twig, and are about half an inch long. In most cases 

 they are very sharp-pointed. If you have sharp enough eyes you can 

 easily make out that every little leaf is not round like a needle, but 

 four-cornered, which is the final test for the spruces. You may find 

 the following spruces in the parks: 



A. Leaves blunt. 



Foliage green; cones large, 4 to 6 inches long, 



Norway Spruce (Picea excelsa) 



B. Leaves sharp pointed. 



1. Foliage green; cones small, 2 inches or less long. 



White Spruce (Picea canadensis) 



2. Foliage blue green; cones medium, 3 inches long, 



Blue Spruce (Picea parryana) 



The FIR trees have leaves that resemble those of the spruces, but 

 instead of being four-cornered they are fiat, and I do not recall any of our 

 cultivated firs with sharp-pointed leaves. Another thing that young 

 folks with sharp eyes will notice is that while the fir leaves when old 

 break off from the twig right at the surface of the twig, in the spruces 

 they break off a little above the surface. So a fir twig after its leaves 

 fall is smooth, while a spruce twig is rough with the stumps of the 

 leaf-bases. There is still another peculiarity of the fir trees in the fact 

 that they are very "pitchy" — having little sacks of clear pitch in the 

 bark of their young branches. Just look over the next fir tree you find 

 and when you see a puffed out spot on the smooth bark run a pin into it 

 and you'll see the pitch gush out. So you should have no trouble in 

 recognizing the fir trees. In fact you should be able to distinguish the 

 two kinds of firs that are rather commonly grown, as follows: 



i. Narrow leaves, 1 inch or less long: foliage green, 



Balsam Fir (Abies balsamea) 

 2. Leaves broader, 2 or more inches long: foliage blue-green. . . .White Fir 



~In a few places in Nebraska the hemlock (Tsuga canadensis) is 

 grown. It resembles the spruces and firs, but is neither one nor the other. 



