VIOLINS AND SPRUCE TREES 117 



leaf-scale coverings, while the P. Excelsa has, com- 

 paratively speaking, only a commonplace-looking 

 hard dry bud, destitute of any such singular trappings. 



To take two more nearly allied instances and 

 dissociate them, the P. Nigra and the P. Alba have 

 bluish glaucous-coloured leaves, quite unlike the more 

 grass-green colour of the P. Rubra, or for the matter 

 of that the P. Excelsa. But the P. Alba is quite 

 devoid of any pubescence, and that is where it shows 

 its marked independence of character in this rather 

 perplexing trio of the Spruces — Red, Black, and White. 



Finally, if you aspire to add to the sum of your 

 accomplishments an intimacy with the different 

 Piceas, we would strongly recommend a close ob- 

 servance of the presence or absence of pubescence 

 on their branches, as well also the colour shape and 

 direction of their leaves, the margins of their scales 

 of their cones, whether entire, delicately frayed on 

 the fringe, or ruthlessly jagged in appearance. All 

 these points become convincing evidences of the 

 individuality of the tree in question. 



VIOLINS AND SPRUCE TREES 



That small, sweet thing, 



Devised in love and fashioned cunningly 



Of wood and strings. 



Before quitting the subject of the Common Spruce 

 we should like to converse on one little sidelight of 

 its wood value. In face of the fact that it has 

 been so disregarded by writers on trees, we feel no 

 occasion to oifer apology for a brief reference thereto. 

 You do not often hap upon a student of wood values 

 and a devotional lover of viols combined in one and 

 the same personality. And so it is that one little 

 episode in the life-history of the Spruce tree has gone 

 by, for the most part, unheeded by tree historians, 

 and in undeserved escape of notice from the musical 



