CONIFERjE. 



SILVA OF NORTH AMERICA. 



39 



In Labrador the White Spruce is widely but not generally distributed, growing in the south in 

 well-watered valleys and ascending rocky hills to elevations of two thousand feet above the sea-level, 

 but north of the southern watershed it is confined to river-valleys.^ West of Hudson Bay it often 

 grows to a large size on river terraces to the very borders of the barren lands, following down the 

 Telzoa River nearly to the shores of Doobaunt Lake ; ^ it was found by Eichardson on the Copper 

 Mine River, within twenty miles of the Arctic Sea, growing to a height of twenty feet,^ and its stems 

 choke the mouths of every arctic American river, strewing the adjacent shores with heaps of driftwood 

 and testifying to its abundance on their shifting banks. In the basin of the Yukon the White 

 Spruce is the largest and most valuable tree, attaining a large size on alluvial bottom-lands, where it 

 is very abundant, while on adjacent hills it remains small and stunted.* On the northwest coast the 

 White Spruce is able to exist farther north than other trees, and to form scattered groves near the 

 sea from the shore of Norton Sound to the Nootak River, where, with short stout trunks and crowded 

 branches densely clothed with thick leaves, it lives through the long arctic winter and sometimes 

 rises to the height of fifty feet.^ The White Spruce is common in Newfoundland and the Maritime 

 Provinces, and on the streams which flow from the north into the St. Lawrence, and westward it 

 ranges through Ontario to the borders of the treeless plains in Manitoba, where it occupies sand-hills 

 and the dry slopes of river banks.® Less abundant and less generally distributed in the central region 

 of British America than the Black Spruce, it forms groves sometimes of large trees on the alluvial 

 bottoms of the Saskatchewan, Churchill, and Athabasca Rivers ; ' in the valleys of the Rocky Mountains 

 of Alberta, British Columbia, and northern Montana, It lines the banks of streams and lakes up to 

 elevations of five thousand feet, and attaining its largest size and Its greatest beauty, sends up tall 

 spire-like heads of dark foliage. It grows in small groves on the Cypress hills in Assiniboine ; ^ and 



1 " The White Spruce is widely distributed throughout the 

 Labrador peninsula, but, unlike the Black Spruce, it is not met 

 ■with in all localities, and its distribution appears to depend almost 

 wholly on the character of the soil, and only to a limited extent 

 upon climate. It is found on both the eastern and western sides 

 of the peninsula, and its northern limit almost coincides with that 

 of the Black Spruce. Aloug the St. Lawrence, and inland to about 

 latitude 51°, large trees of this species are abundant in the valleys 

 and far up the sides of the rocky and drift-covered hills (1,000 to 

 2,000 feet), where they grow to commercial size along with White 

 Birch and the Aspen. Farther northward the Black Spruce grad- 

 ually replaces them on the rocky hillsides, and the White Spruce 

 appears to be confined to the modified drift of the river terraces, 

 where the trees are conspicuous for their size, being much larger 

 and longer than the Black Spruce. On the central table-land 

 (nearly 2,000 feet above sea-level) to the northward of latitude 52°, 



r 



White Spruce is rarely found on the great area of arehsean crystal- 

 line rocks with its overlying soil of sandy glacial drift; and it is 

 found only in small patches on the sides of the hills with small 

 White Birches, and usually growing on the modified drift along 

 the borders of the smaller mountain streams. 



" On the large areas of stratified Cambrian rocks, about the 

 upper waters of the Hamilton Kiver, White Spruce grows freely 

 and to large size (3 feet diameter) on the hillsides, with a heavy 

 rich soil formed by the disintegration of the ferruginous lime- 

 stones and shales beneath, and is here found as far north as 

 latitude 54°. On the archeean area, northward of latitude 53° 

 White Spruce is found onl}' in the river-valleys of the eastern, 

 northern, and western watersheds, where it grows on the terraces 

 that flank the rocky walls of the valleys, and Is nearly always 

 associated with White Birch and sometimes with Aspen and Balsam 

 Poplar. 



" White Spruce trees are the only conifers found growing on 

 the outer islands of James Bay; and this is probably due to the 

 soil being very similar to the modified drift of the river terraces 

 of the mainland, as the islands are formed from the drift of a ter- 

 minal moraine, rearranged by marine action during a post-glacial 

 subsidence. The Islands aldng the east shore of Hudson Bay are 

 often rocky, and, where wooded, the trees are mostly Black 

 Spruces, with some White Spruce on the marine terraces." (Low 

 in litt. See, also, Low, Rep. Geolog. Surv. Can. n. ser. viii. 34 L.) 



2 Tyrrell, Rep. Geolog. Surv. Can. n. ser. ix. 214 F. See, also, 



Tyrrell, in The Canadian Magazine, vii. 524 (Through the Suh~ 

 Arctics of Canada). 



8 Franklin Jour. Appx. No. 7, 752. 



* Dall, Alaska and its Resources, 439. — G. M. Dawson, Geolog. 

 Surv. Can, n. ser. iii. pt. i. 112 B, 116 B, 121 B. 



6 As Abies arctica A. Murray has described the White Spruce 

 of northwestern Alaska, which he distinguished by its broader 

 pulvini, thicker leaves, and smaller cones, with more concave scales 

 and bracts of a somewhat different shape (Jour. Bot. v. 253, t. 

 269 [1867]). These are slight differences, which may well have 

 been the result of the severe climate of the region where the offi- 

 cers of H. M. S. Herald discovered this tree, which, judging from 

 the figure, I cannot distinguish from ordinary northern forms of 

 Picea Canadensis. 



It is also the Pinus alba, 3 arctica, Parlatore, De Candolle Prodr. 

 xvl. pt. ii. 414 (1868), and the Picea alba, var. arctica, F. Kurtz, 

 Bot. Jahrh. xix. 425 (Fl. Chilcatgehietes) (1895). 



« Maeoun, Cat. Can. PL 469. 



7 Tyrrell, Rep. Geolog. Surv. Can. n. ser. viii. 12 D. 



8 Macouu, L c. 470. 



