172 PROCEEDINGS OF THE CANADIAN INSTITUTE. 



obovate undivided, entire, (faces of leaves whitened glaucous, pul- 

 vinuli pale brown, cone long-stalked, cylindi'ical or ovoid oblong, 

 2 to 2| inches long, largest diameter, J inch., scales quite entire, at 

 first green, changing to pale brown) ; rubra, cones ovate-oblong, 

 scales split into two lobes, margin otherwise quite entire, (doubt- 

 fully distinct from the next, leaves more acute, cones larger, green 

 when young, scales constantly and evidently split-lacerate irregularly, 

 margin otherwise entire, the wood becoming reddish) ; nigra, cones 

 ovate-acute, scales obovate, undivided, erose, denticulate, bark black- 

 ish, faces of leaves white-dotted ; cones shortly peduncled, drooping, 

 an inch and a-half long, at first pnrpurascent, finally reddish brown, 

 scales with thin margins becoming undulate-lacerate. 



Professor Beck, in the Botany of the Northern and Middle States, 

 (1833), which formed the precursor of Dr. Asa Gray's standard 

 Manual, described three species (p. 340), as : nigra, * * * leaves 

 straight, strobile ovate, scales elliptical, undulate on the margin, 

 erosely denticulate at the apex ; rubra, * * * strobile oblong, 

 scales I'ounded, somewhat two-lobed, entire on the margin ; alba^ 

 leaves incurved, strobile subcylindrical, loose, scales obovate, very 

 entire. 



I have not been able to refer to the first edition of Dr. Gray's 

 Manual of Botany of the Northern United States, (published in 

 1848), but in the second edition (1856) the red spruce of Beck is 

 dropped, and only nigra and alba described, — the former with dark 

 rigid sharp green leaves, cones ovate, or ovate-oblong, (one to one and 

 a-half inch long), the scales with a thin and wavy or eroded edge, — a 

 common variety in New England having lighter coloured or glaucous- 

 green leaves, rather more slender and loosely spreading, and indistin- 

 guishable from alba except by the cones. A. alba is characterized as 

 having oblong-cylindrical cones (one to two inches long), the scales 

 with firm and entire edges ; otherwise as in the lighter-colored variety 

 of the last. The remark is added : probably these two, with the red 

 spruce, are mere forms of one species. 



In subsequent editions of the same work, the descriptions are 

 amended, the leaves of nigra being charactei'ized as either dark green 



