440 PICEA NIGKA. 



two or three feet high, and as their energies appear to be entirely 



expended in producing seeds, the fertile branches become the only 



vigorous ones. The cones are densely crowded near the top of the tree, 



while the trunk below is often destitute of living branches, although 



unshaded and growing far from other trees. These ibnse tufts of dark 



branches, like plumes upon poles, present a strange spectacle to the 



traveller who for the first time crosses the larger muskeags, especially 



at twilight, for he seems to be looking over a weird procession 



stretching mile after mile until lost in the distance. On the smaller 



muskeags there is often a regular gradation of size from the smallest 



seedlings by the water in the centre of the bog to the tall slender 



trees, sometimes 60 feet high, upon the shores of the basin with their 



drooping branches which are freely developed in the better soil of the 



high margins, and trunks which rarely exceed eight inches in diameter." 



In striking contrast to the Muskeag form is a remarkable variety 



found on the highest summits of the Adirondacks. It is the variation 



of the tree into a mere procumbent shrub, so small that it offers but 



little impediment to him who would walk over it. These bushes are 



more or less flattened in outline, the branches issuing nearly from the 



opposite sides of the trunk as in the Ground Hemlock (Canadian Yew). 



They grow in dense patches, completely covering the ground, and in 



numerous instances with their apices all pointing the same way. 



The wood of the Black Spruce is light and soft, but not strong. 



Within the United States and in the border counties of the Canadian 



Dominion it is used chiefly for the manufacture of paper pulp ; in 



Manitoba and Saskatchewan where the trees afford planks of greater 



scantling, the timber is used for the same purposes as that of the 



common Spruce in Europe. Of the minor products the most 



extensively used are Spruce gum and Spruce beer. 



Spruce gum is the resinous exudation of the Black and other 

 eastern American Spruces. It is collected in considerable quantities in 

 winter in New England and Canada by men on snow-shoes carrying 

 long poles armed with chisels, with which the viscous masses are- 

 knocked or cut off and caught in small cups attached to the poles just 

 below the chisels. It is dissolved in alcohol and occasionally used in 

 medicine. 



Spruce beer was formerly made by boiling the branches of the 



Black and Red Spruces with honey ; it is now made from the essence 



of Spruce, which is a liquid of the colour and consistency of molasses 



with a bitter, astringent, acid flavour; it is obtained by boiling the 



young branches of the Black and Red Spruces in water, and evaporating 



the decoction. To prepare the beverage, the essence of Spruce is 



boiled in water flavoured with various ingredients and then mixed 



with molasses, or occasionally with sugar, allowed to ferment, and 



bottled.* Spruce beer is considered a pleasant beverage in hot weather. 



The Black Spruce was introduced into Great Britain by Bishop 



Compton about the year 1700, or a little earlier j; and has since been 



more generally cultivated in this country than either of the three eastern 



American Spruce Firs, although its ornamental qualities are not of 



* Silva of North America, XII. 31. t Alton, Hortus Kewensis, ed. II. Vol-. V. p. 319. 



