316 BRECK'S BOOK OF FLOWERS. 



from the ground to the top, form a conical head of strikingly reg- 

 ular and symmetrical proportions. To the unpractised eye this 

 mathematical exactness of shape is beautiful ; and the Spruce 

 is a favorite tree, and is often placed in the near vicinity of 

 houses. But to one, studious of variety and picturesque effect, 

 the regular cone becomes stiff and monotonous, and the unva- 

 rying dark-green of the foliage has a sombre and melancholy 

 aspect. The leaves are dark-green, two or three fifths of an 

 inch long." (Emerson.} 



Abies alba. The Single or White Spruce. The same 

 author as above describes the White Spruce " as a more slender 

 and tapering tree of the swamps, marked by the light color of 

 the bark and lighter green of the leaves. It rarely rises to the 

 height of forty or fifty feet. It is perfectly straight, with nu- 

 merous, somewhat irregularly scattered, branches, forming a 

 head of the same shape as that of the Double Spruce, but less 

 broad, and with foliage of a less gloomy color; whence its 

 name. The leaves are of a light bluish-green, in spirals 

 rather closely set, and equally on all sides of the shoot." We 

 found this species growing on the top of a mountain in Maine, 

 near Penobscot River. The whole mountain-top was inter- 

 spersed with groups of the most perfect-shaped Spruces of this 

 description that could be imagined. They were not more than 

 twenty or thirty feet high, crowded with branches from the 

 ground to the* top, forming perfect pyramids of evergreen, so 

 thick that it seemed a fit retreat for any wild animal, or bird, 

 that might seek shelter among its profuse foliage. The lower 

 branches, reclined upon the ground, are so spreading, that the 

 base of the pyramid appeared to be nearly the same width as the 

 height of the tree. A few groups of this description would be 

 magnificent decorations to the pleasure-ground. But such 

 beautiful specimens could hardly be expected, even in this cli- 

 mate, so far out of its natural haunts, or latitude, where it is 

 found in its highest perfection. 



A. communis. Norway Spruce. This, as we have 

 already remarked, is finer than either the Black or White 



