CANADIAN SPRUCES. 175 



branches, but, although spreading in direction at their bases, are more 

 or less curved upwards in a secund manner, presenting a nearly 

 uniform flattened brush-like surface of foliage. The cones vary in abso- 

 lute size, according to vigour of tree, etc., but are always of much 

 greater length and usually more slender than those of the other species, 

 being nearly cylindrical, not sensibly thickened in the middle as in 

 nigra, nor below the middle as in rubra. Dr. Bell well expresses 

 their form as finger shaped. The scales are also more numerous than 

 in the allied species, and the spiial arrangement is different. The 

 cones are green at first, the individual scales being sometimes 

 clouded with a slight brown band-like patch on the exposed part, but 

 not extending to the edge. In ripening, the green color mellows into 

 a more or less decided straw color, but the cones when mature are 

 never either dark or decidedly reddish. When of a lively stiaw- 

 color, and profusely produced all over the tree, as we often .see them 

 along the shore, hansing down from the drooping tips of the youno- 

 brancblets, the contrast with the bright silver-frosted needle foliage 

 is very pleasing, so that the Avhite spruce is one of the most orna- 

 mental of our native tiees, and admirably adapted for sea-side sheltex-. 

 The edges of the cone scales are always quite entire. 



Prof Bell, M.D., President of the Fourth Section of the PtoyaJ 

 Society, has very kindly made careful observations, and communicated 

 them to me, on the several points of difference between the white and 

 black spruces. Through his kindness, also, I have had opportunity 

 of examining specimens from widely separated localities throughout the 

 Dominion. His opportunities of travel, for observation and collec- 

 tion of specimens, during his long connection with the Geological 

 Survey of Canada, have been exceptionally favorable. Dr. Bell 

 points out that the most obvious distinctions between the black and 

 white spruce arc (1) that the latter is a larger tree than the black, 

 coarser, lighter in general color, as well as in color of bark, twigs, 

 etc. ; (2) that, in the white spruce, the boughs are stiffer, more vigor- 

 ous, and flatter than in the black ; (3) that the cones differ in many 

 ways ; in the white, they are scattered all over the tree, although 

 mo.st abundant near the top, and drop ofl' every yeai", whereas the 

 black spruce cones adhere for two, three, four or five years — the cur- 

 rent year's crop being at the to]) (mostly), the previous year's next 



