PICE A NIGRA. 439 



the two sides turned towards the axis, bluish green on the two opposite 

 sides. Staminate flowers sub-globose, dark red, about an eighth of an 

 inch long. Cones ovoid-oylindric, obtuse, 1*25 1-5 inch long, almost 

 globose after the dispersion of the seeds, at first dark brown-purple, 

 at maturity greyish brown and persisting on the tree several years; 

 scales broadly oval, denticulate. Seed-wings obovate, oblique, 0*5 inch long. 



Picea nigra, Link in Linnsea, XV. 520 (1841). Carriere, Traite Conif. ed. II. 

 323. Engelmann in Gard. Chron. XI. (1879), p. 334, excl. var. rubra. Sargent, 

 Forest Trees N". Amer. 10th Census U.S.A. IX. 202. Macoun, Cat. Canad. 

 Plants, 468. Beissner, Nadelholzk. 332, with figs. Masters in Journ. R. Hort. 

 Soc. XIV. 222. 



P. Mariana, Sargent, Silva K Amer. XII. 28, t. 596. 



Abies nigra, Michaux, Hist. Arb. N. Amer. I. 123, t. 11 (1810). London, Arb. 

 et Frut. Brit. IV. 2312, with figs Forbes, Pinet. Woburn, 97, t. 34. Hoopes, 

 Evergreens, 169. Gordon, Pinet. ed. II. 13. 

 . A. Mariana, Miller, Diet. ed. VIII. No. 5 (1768).* 



Pinus nigra, Lambert, Genus Pinus, I. t. 27 (1803). Hooker, W. Fl. Bor. Amer. 

 II. 163. Endlicher, Synops. Conif. 115. Parlatore, D. 0. Prodr. XVI. 413. 



Eng. and Amer. Black Spruce. Fr. Sapinette noir. Germ. Schwarzfichte. Ital. 

 Abete nero. 



Picea nigra is distributed over nearly the whole of the British 

 Dominion of North America from Newfoundland to Yukon whence 

 it spreads into Alaska. Its northern limit is the limit of arborescent 

 vegetation which on the North American continent occurs about 

 lat. 67 N. in the Mackenzie valley, but on the eastern side of the 

 continent this limit is near the southern shore of Ungava Bay or 

 nearly ten degrees further south. South of the Dominion boundary 

 the Black Spruce is most abundant around the great lakes where it 

 attains its largest size. It spreads through the New England States 

 into New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania, occupying for the most 

 part the swampy districts, but it is nowhere very common. 

 Distributed over such an enormous area and growing under manifold 

 conditions of climate and environment, the Black Spruce is found 

 to vary greatly in habit and dimensions ; in the cold sphagnum 

 swamps it rarely attains a great size, but on the alluvial lands of 

 Athabasca, even as far north as the 58th parallel, trees 80 feet high 

 and three feet in diameter have been noted. But perhaps the most 

 remarkable conditions under which the Black Spruce is enabled to 

 find a foothold, occur in northern Wisconsin where it is called the 

 Muskeag Spruce ; its aspect and state in this region are thus described 

 by H. E. Ay res in the American "Garden and Forest," Vol. VII. 

 p. 504: 



"On the borders of small forest lakes which are being covered with 

 sedges and sphagnum, Picea nigra is able to exist without mineral 

 soil, and one may put them under water by standing on the bog at 

 their roots. They grow very slowly, the annual rings of their small 

 trunk being sometimes so minute as to be indistinguishable by the 

 naked eye. These little old trees are found bearing cones when only 



* This is the oldest specific name but it was left in abeyance for more than a century 

 by most subsequent authors. 



