CHAP. CXIII. 



CONl FER^. ^'bIKS. 



2313 



spruce." (N. Amer. Sj/L, iii. p. 178.) As the variety appears tolerably 

 distinct in British gardens, as far as respects the colour of tiie cones, we 

 have, for convenience' sake, given it as a species ; though we entirely agree 

 with Michaux in thinking it only a variety. 



Description. A tall tree, attaining in America the height of 70 ft. or 80 ft. in 

 the woods, though the trunk is seldom more than from 1 ft. 3 in. to 1 ft. 8 in. in 

 diameter. The branches spread more in a horizontal than in adrooping direction, 

 like those of the Norway spruce ; and, consequently, the black spruce (notwith- 

 standing the darkness of its foliage) has not the gloomy aspect of the European 

 tree. The trunk is smooth, remarkably straight, and diminishes regularly from 

 the base to the summit, which is terminated by an annual lance-like shoot, 1 ft. 

 or 1 ft. 3 in. long. The bark is smooth and blackish. The leaves are of a 

 dark sombre green : they are short, being scarcely \ in. long, thickly set, 

 stift", and are attached singly to the branches, which they cover all round. 

 The male catkins are cylindrical, erect, and on peduncles ; about 1 in. long; 

 yellowish, with red-tipped laithers. The female catkins are oval, and at first 

 erect, but soon become pendulous : they are purplish, and almost black, 

 when young; but become, when ripe, of a dusky reddish brown. When full- 

 grown, they are about 1^ in. long, and J in. in diameter at the middle. The scales 

 are blunt, rounded, very thin, and, when ripe, rugged and torn on the margin, and 

 sometimes half through the scale. The seeds are small, scarcely more than 

 a line in length, with rather a small rigid wing. The rate of growth of A. 

 nigra is more rapid than that of A. alba under similar circumstances. The 

 finest specimens that we have seen in the neighbourhood of London are at 

 Pain's Hill, near the Temple of Bacchus ; where, in 1 837, there were several trees 

 between 60 ft. and 70 ft. high, laden with cones. The tree in the Horticultural 

 Society's Garden, after being 12 years planted, was 20 ft. high. One at Drop- 

 more, lately planted, was, in 1837, 10 ft. high, bearing abundance of cones. 

 A. nigra, like A. excelsa, is liable to take root at the extremity of the branches, 

 and form circles of trees round the parent plant. There is a remarkable 

 specimen of this kind at Syon, of which fig. 2226. is a portrait to the scale 

 of 1 in. to 12 ft. The 



entire mass, which 



consists of a centre ,>.^BBII[^ 2226 



tree, with a double 



circle of young trees, 



is 30 ft. high, and 



30 ft. in diameter; 



and the trees of which 



it is composed bear 



abundance of cones. 



One is described by 



Mr. Gorrie, in the 



Magazine of Natural 



History, vol. ii. p. 



173., as standing in 



the woods of Braco 



Castle, Perthshire ; 



of which fg. 2227. 



is a portrait by Mr. 



Gorrie. This tree, in 



1828, was about 40 



years old, and its 



height about 40 ft. Mr. Gorrie adds that a natural seedling, which had 



sprung up not far from the mother tree, and was apparently about 12 years 



of age, was also, in its turn, already surrounded by a numerous and healthy 



progeny of young trees, proceeding from the extreme [)oints of the branches. 



Geography and History. According to Michaux, this tree is a native of 

 the coldest regions of North America ; but is most abundant in the countries 



