36 



SILVA OF NORTH AMERICA 



CONIFERS. 



as an ornament of northern parks and gardens, where, although it grows more slowly than most 

 coniferous trees/ its great value is shown by the old specimens densely clothed with branches which 

 are occasionally seen near farmhouses in the northern states.^ 



The two species are well distinguished by the size and shape of 

 the staminate flowers, and by the size and shape of the cones, 

 which on the Black Spruce are strongly hooked at the base and 

 are persistent for many years, while on the Ked Spruce they are 

 usually much larger, with nearly straight much shorter stems, and 

 fall mostly during their first winter. The leaves of the Red Spruce 

 are long, dark green, and lustrous, and those of the Black Spruce 

 are shorter and blue. Forms intermediate in character between 

 the Black and Red Spruces are not known to exist. The Black 

 Spruce, except at the far north, inhabits only wet sphagnum- 

 covered bogs, while the Red Spruce grows only on well-drained 

 hillsides. The Black Spruce is a tree of the far north, only exist- 

 ing precariously south of the northern border of the United States, 

 while the Red Spruce is an Appalachian tree, attaining its greatest 

 dimensions between northern New Hampshire and Pennsylvania. 

 The distinctive characters of the two species have been well pointed 

 out by George Lawson (Researches on the Distinctive Characters of 

 the Canadian Spruces, 9. See, also, Canadian Researches of Science, 

 vi. 172), and by J. G. Jack (Garden and Foresij x. 63). Fruiting 

 branches of the two species are well figured by Beissner. 



The first specific name of the Red Spruce is that of Lambert, 

 Pinus rubra, published in 1803. Pinus rubra, however, in 1803, 

 was a synonym, as it had been used in 1768 by Miller for another 

 tree. For the same reason the varietal name rubra, used by Da 

 Roi in 1771, and by Wangenheim in 1787, is not available. The 

 impossibility of identifying Muenchhausen's Pinus Abies acutissima, 

 published in 1770, under which he quotes as a synonym Plukenet's 

 Abies minor pectinatis foliis, which is shown by Plukenet's figure to 



be the Hemlock Spruce, makes the use of Muenchhausen's varietal 

 name also inadmissible. No other specific or varietal name having 

 been used by earlier authors for the Red Spruce, I propose to call 



it Picea rubens. 



1 The Red Spruce grows very slowly and probably attains a 



greater average age than any other tree in the forests of the 

 northeastern states. From a number of measuxements made in 

 the Adirondack region under the direction of Mr. William F. Fox, 

 Superintendent of the State Forests of New Tork, it is shown that 

 the Red Spruce, which in this report is called Picea nigra, may 

 require three hundred and fifty-four years to produce a trunk only 

 twenty-six inches in diameter on the stump. Of two hundred 

 and thirty-seven trees examined in St. Lawrence County, twenty- 

 four, with a maximum diameter of thirty inches, were from three 

 hundred to three hundred and fifty-four years of age, while one 

 hundred others were between two hundred and fifty and three 

 hundred years old (Fox, Rep. Forest Coram. N. Y. 1894, 134). 



2 As an ornamental tree Picea rubens can be compared with 

 Picea orientalis, which it resembles in its narrow pyramidal form 

 and dense habit and in the rich dark coloring of its foliage. The 

 White Spruce grows much more rapidly and is of a more open 

 habit and livelier color than the Red Spruce, but it shows its high- 

 est beauty and grows to a great age only in regions of shorter 

 summers and colder winters than southern New England, where 

 the Red Spruce, finding the climatic conditions which suit it, should 

 prove the most valuable of the American Spruces in ornamental 

 plantations. 



EXPLANATION OF THE PLATE. 



Plate DXCVII. Picea kubens. 



1. A branch with staminate flowers, natural size. 



2. A staminate flower, enlarged. 



3. An anther, front view, enlarged. 



4. A branch with pistillate flowers, natural size. 



5. A pistillate flower, enlarged. 



6. A scale of a pistillate flower, lower side, with its bract, enlarged. 



7. A scale of a pistillate flower, upper side, with its ovules, enlarged, 



8. A fruiting branch, natural size. 



9. A cone-scale, upper side, with its seeds, natural size. 



10. A cone-scale, lower side, with its bract, natural size. 



11. A seed, enlarged. 



12. Cross section of a leaf, magnified fifteen diameters, 



13. Winter-buds, natural size. 



14. Winter-buds, showing leaf-like scales at their base, natural size. 



15. A seedling plant, natural size. 



