THE SPRUCE. 379 



longer and less numerous, and do not form so perfect a 

 cylinder by closely surrounding the branch, as in the 

 Black Spruce. 



Notwithstanding their similarity, it is the Black Spruce 

 alone that produces the essential oil for the manufacture 

 of beer. This species is also much more valuable for its 

 timber. Emerson remarks that the leaves and scales of 

 all the pine family, in which are included the spruce and 

 the fir, are so disposed as to form spirals in two directions. 



THE NORWAY SPRUCE. 



The Norway Spruce is very favorably known in this 

 part of the country as an ornamental tree. It is described 

 by European writers as the tallest tree of the European 

 forest, except the silver fir. In this country no trees of 

 this species have attained any great altitude, having been 

 all planted within a space of fifty years. Occasionally we 

 behold a solitary individual that may have attained about 

 half of its possible height, but the most do not exceed 

 twenty or thirty feet. In certain situations no man could 

 help admiring the beauty and majesty of these trees, 

 when, for example, they border an extensive field, dividing 

 it, as it were, from the roadside, as may be seen on the 

 southern borders of the Observatory ground in Cambridge. 

 But as a boundary for a garden, or enclosure the trees of 

 all this family are too gloomy. The Norway Spruce 

 would be more valuable to plant for its timber than our 

 native species, because it is more rapid in its growth 

 and would produce a greater length of shaft in a given 

 number of years. But the two American spruces are 

 are more beautiful trees, as would be apparent to any one 

 who should compare them when growing together. 



