SPRUCE FIRS. 15 



oval shape, green when young, but brown when ripe ; scales 

 roundish, smooth, entire on the margins, and few in number ; 

 seeds small, light brown, with wings a quarter of an inch long, 

 and nearly white ; bark smooth and light-coloured. 



A bushy-headed tree, growing in its native country from 60 

 to 80 feet high, with a straight stem, of a uniform size, for two- 

 thirds of its height. 



The wood is less valuable than any of the other resinous trees 

 in North America, but the bark is inestimable for the purposes 

 of the tanner, and spruce beer is made from the branches. 



It is found in the most northern regions of Canada, and on 

 the highest mountains, as far as South Carolina. Michaux 

 says it begins to appear about Hudson's Bay, the Lake of St. 

 Johns, and in the neighbourhood of Quebec, and that it fills 

 the forests in Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Maine, Vermont, 

 and the upper part of New Hampshire, in company with the 

 Black Spruce, where it constitutes three-fourths of the ever- 

 green woods. There is the following variety, viz : 



Abies Canadensis nana, Lawson. 

 Syn, Tsuga Canadensis nana, Carriere. 



A dwarf variety, not growing more than 2 or 3 feet high, 

 and spreading on the ground with a more tufty foliage. 



No. 12. Abies Douglasii, Lindley, the Douglas Fir. 

 Syn. Abies Californica, Don. 

 „ Picea Douglasii, Link. 

 „ Pinus Douglasii, Sabine. 

 „ „ taxifolia, Lambert. 

 „ Tsuga Douglasi, Carriere. 

 „ Abies mucronata, Rafinesque. 



Leaves, solitary, flat, entire, narrow, linear, spreading and 

 irregularly two-rowed ; from 1 to 1| inch long, bluntly pointed, 

 bright green above, and slightly glaucous, and much paler 

 below. Branches, numerous, irregularly placed along the trunk, 

 spreading horizontal, sometimes a little ascending, very twiggy, 

 and nearly flat, branchlets long, slender, mostly in two rows, 



