376 ANNUAL KEPORT. 



About seven miles north of Oceola, Iowa, are seen two beautiful specimens of 

 the Blue Spruce. These trees were also brought in a wagon all the way from 

 Pike's Peak by a gold mining adventurer in 1860. The man becoming tired of 

 hauling them, sold out to a farmer who succeeded in raising two of them. In 

 planting, a quantity of stones was mixed with the soil around one of them. This 

 tree had made double the growth of the other. 



The Pungens or Blue Spruce in Colorado shows a marked tendency to sport, both 

 in the color of the leaves and the growing habit of the literal branches. While 

 the foliage of some trees exhibit a full, lich, glaceous blue, both above and btlow, 

 making them conspicuous objects as far as the tree can be seen, others ia the same 

 group, take on different degrees of color, from a tinge of silvery blue above, to a 

 dark green beneath. The natural order of the branches are ligid and fan-shap.d, 

 drooping in regular folds one above the other. But in many trees of mature 

 growth are seen great numbers of flexible branches from six inches to a foot in 

 length, hanging pendulant from beneath these folds, waving with the least bit of 

 air that stirs. 



This peculiar weeping habit contrasting so strangely with the general stiff and 

 stationary character of the tree, does not appear in younger trees, neither is it 

 confined to any shade of color in the foliage. So regular is the arrangement of 

 the over-lapping branches of this rare and beautiful Spruce, that often times when 

 caught in drenching showers of rain, we have found secure shelter under the -'blue 

 forest banners of the Rockies." In point of stately elegance and grandeur it 

 stands a fitting representative and often reaches a height of eighty feet. The 

 cones are borne sparingly on the side branches, but on the top or apex, they cluster 

 in such quantities as to almost hide the leaves, where they hang penduLxnt for 

 two years. 



This head decoration of light-brown cones covering a few feet only of the 

 extreme top, makes a fine setting off to the gay colors below. 



As a hardy, rapid growing ornamental evergreen, the Blue Spruce of Colorado 

 has no superior. 



Abies Englemann. (Engleman Spruce ) 



In hardiness, this Spruce is a true "iron-clid," having withstood the severe 

 climate of St. Petersburg, Russii. It is also a tree of high altitudes, growing up 

 to "timber line" on northern exposures. The best specimens however, are found 

 at an elevation of about 9,000 feet, along side Picea Pungens and Abies Grandis. 

 The leaves are short and thickly set on slender branches, of a dark-green color, 

 with a small stiii^e of white above and below. 



These lines of white stomata are not so plain in a spacimen seedling grown and 

 sent us by Robert Douglis, as they are generally seen in their natural habitation 

 on the mountains. This apparent difference may be caused more from altitude 

 and climate than from any difference in species. 



All trees and plants found growing in Colorado exhibit a much lighter color in 

 leaf and bark, than the same varieties grown in liwer altitudes. 



The wood of the Engleman Spruce is soft, white and valuable for timber, and 

 for ornamental purposes, we pi ice it in the front as a companion picture beside 

 the Menziesii. 



Abies Grandi-i (Great Silver Fir). Of all the new and rare conifer that it has been 



