Ill 



PICE^, OR SPRUCE TREES 



(Of the natural order of CONIFERS, of the 



GENUS PINACEiE, OF THE TRIBE ABIETINE^, 



of the genus picea) 



Introductory 



Yet green are Saco's banks below. 

 And belts of spruce and cedar show 

 Dark fringing round these cones of snow, 



Whittier, Funeral of the Sokokis. 



PiCEA is the Latin name given to the family of trees 

 more familiarly spoken of as Spruce Firs, and the 

 English name accorded can be traced by usually 

 employed processes — namely, the searching of dic- 

 tionaries and the excavating of derivations — to an 

 adjective that implies something natty, smart and 

 dandified. While in many instances the various 

 species of these Spruce trees, like the Socialists of old 

 and to-day, hold ideas as to the possession of certain 

 properties in common, they, notwithstanding, contrive 

 to draw the line at the participation of other points 

 at issue when it happens to suit their particular fancy 

 or convenience, or, more correctly speaking in an 

 application to trees, the exigencies of their geo- 

 graphical situations. 



We will instance some of their features in common. 

 Their trunks taper, their crowns are pyramid-shaped, 

 and their branches grow in regularly distanced circles 



I02 



