N. ORD —CONIFPERA:: 163 
S. ORD.—Abietinee. 
GENUS.—ABIES »* TOURN. 
SEX. SYST.-_MON(CECIA MONADELPHIA. 
ABIES NIGRA. 
BLACK SPRUCE. 
SYN.—ABIES NIGRA, POIR.; PINUS NIGRA, AIT.; ABIES DENTICULATA, 
MICHX.; PINUS RUBRA, LAMB. 
COM. NAMES.—BLACK SPRUCE, DOUBLE SPRUCE; (GER.) SCHWARTZ- 
TANNE. 
A TINCTURE OF THE GUM EXUDATION OF THE TRUNK OF ABIES NIGRA, POIR. 
Description.—This beautiful evergreen tree attains a growth varying between 
30 and 70 feet in height, and 15 to 50 feet in breadth at the base. Leaves acerose, 
short, quadrilateral, very dark green, and projecting in all directions. Amthers 
tipped with a rounded, recurved appendage; fo//ex similar to that of Pimus—z. e., 
of three united grains.+ Cones 34 to 1% inch long, ovate or ovate-oblong, mostly 
recurved, persistent, hanging from or near the ends of the branches especially at 
the summit of the tree; sca/es thin, rigid, persistent on the axis; edges generally 
eroded; seeds and their wings about two-thirds the length of the scale. 
Abies.—This, the genus Abies of Linnzeus, Tournefort and others, is synony- 
mous with Picea of Link, but not with the genus Picea of Linnzus. It is character- 
ized as follows: Buds scaly ; Zeaves short, persistent, all of one form and foliaceous, 
scattered, or more or less 2-ranked, never fascicled. Flowers monoecious. Fertile 
catkins lateral or terminal on the branches of the preceding year; sterz/e catkins 
scattered, or sometimes clustered, in the axils of the leaves of the previous year’s 
growth. Cones pendent, at the base of the new growth of the season; sca/es or 
flat open carpe/s imbricate, thin and even (not prickly-tipped nor thickened), situ- 
ated in the axil of a bract; évac¢s subtending the scales, very small. Seeds 2, inverted, 
adhering to the base of each scale; foramen looking downward; ¢esta smooth, 
coriaceous or ligneous; wg membranaceous. Fméryo in the axis of the albu- 
men; a/éumen sarcous or oleaceous ; cotyledons 2 to 15. 
Coniferee.—This superb and wide-spread family is composed of evergreen 
(Ex. Larix) trees or shrubs, with branching, generally excurrent, trunks, rich in 
* The classical Latin name, , 
+ Or asingle grain with bulged extremities, sometimes described as two grains with a curved connective. 
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