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country in great (juantities from the Baltic ports 

 under the name of " white deal." 



Notwithstanding the perfect regularity of its 

 straight and conical form, a well-grown spruce, 

 with space to allow it to retain its luxuriant 

 rioating foliage down to the surface of the ground, 

 is a beautiful object. 



The spruces and the firs, with their small, 

 simple, solitary leaves, descend from the ancient 

 race of Gyinnospcrms, a group believed to have 

 been " the most prominent of the flora of the 

 " whole earth, for ages before the appearance of 

 " the broad-leaved trees and the gaily flowering 

 " herbs." 



The black spruce, P. nigra, is a North 

 American tree. It is very hardy and has a rich, 

 dark, dense foliage. It is of much slower growth, 

 and nothing ajiproaching m size to the Norway 

 spruce. 



The Douglas spruce, P. Douglasii, frecjuently 

 called the " Douglas fir," although it has the 

 leaves and cones of the spruce, was brought 

 to this country earl\' in the Nineteenth Century. 

 It is a fast-growing tree, and lias deservedly 

 gained great popularitw The leaves, bright 

 green above and paler beneath, stand out and 

 are longer than in the Norway spruce ; in the 

 latter, too, they are more compressed to the 

 stem. Late frosts, after the buds of the Douglas 



