312 A HANDBOOK OF CONIFER.E 



in their second season, usually emitting, with the leaves, a foetid, 

 mouse-like odour when bruised. Winter buds up to I in. long, 

 with rounded, chestnut-brown scales. Leaves persistent for 

 several years, crowded on the upper side of the shoot, pale green 

 or glaucous, about | in. long, incurved, ending in an acute or 

 roundish horny point ; quadrangular in section, with stomata on 

 all sides. Cones cylindric, blunt, 1-2| in. long, and |-f in. in 

 diameter, green when growing, pale brown when ripe ; scales few, 

 loosely overlapping, roundish or oval, | in. broad, very thin and 

 flexible, margin rounded or truncated. Seed ^ in. long with a 

 wing J in. long, partly embracing the seed. 



Var. arctica, Kurz. 



Leaves thicker and cones smaller than in the type, the cone- 

 scales being more rounded and the bracts of a different shape. 



Var. aurea. 

 Leaves and shoots golden yellow. 



Var. coerulea, Carriere. 



Habit densely pjo'amidal. Foliage conspicuously glaucous. 

 Leaves pressed against the shoots. Often found as a seedling. 



Var. coerulea Hendersoni. 



Like the last in habit. Young shoots horizontal, the older 

 ones pendulous. A fine form. 



Var. compacta. 

 Habit dwarf and compact. 



Var. echiniformis. 



Habit dwarf and compact. Leaves more spiny than in the 

 type, 



Var, monstrosa. 



Branches loose and abnormal, 



Var. nana, Loudon. 

 A bushy form of compact habit, 



P. alha may generally be recognized without difficulty by its 

 bluish, disagreeably smelling foUage. It is easUy known from 

 P. nigra and P, rubra by its usually hairless shoots, the different 

 buds which have no awl-shaped outer scales and larger cones. 



The white spruce has a wide distribution in Canada and the 

 N. United States, reaching, according to Sargent, from Labrador 



