Canadian Forestry; Journal, February), 1919 



59 



THE MAKING 0^ SPRUCE TREE 



By Dr. C. D. Howe, Faculty of Forestry, 

 University of Toronto. 



(FIRST ARTICLE) 



Editor's Note. — Readers of The Canadian Forestry Journal Tvill welcome this series of 

 twelve articles by Dr. Howe. Each is popularly written and so brief that none may well plead 

 lack of time. 



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In the centre, a fruiting branch of red spruce. 



Above it, at the left, a branch with male flowers; 

 at the right, a branch with female flowers. Xote 

 that the latter are at the tips of the branch. 



Lower left-hand corner, a single male flower and 

 beside it at the right the sac which contains the 

 yollow powder. 



'I"hc tliinl fiKure from left to riglit is a female 

 flower. The next two figures to the right show the 

 little cases in which the female cell is borne, one in 

 each case. 



The three figures in the lower riglit-hand corner 

 represent the seeds which developed from the little 

 cases indicated in the paragraph above. Two 

 winged seeds are borne on each scale. 



A seedljng is shown at the left of the centre and 

 .sonii' winter Inids at the right. 



The figure at the top centre represents a cross 

 section of a leaf. At the middle are conducting 

 strands and at the margins resin ducts. 



Tile figures reijresent tlie objects about one- 

 fouriii tlieir natural size. 



It is my purpose to tell you how a \.x^^ is 

 made, to trace its life history from the very 

 be<^innings through its infancy, youth, maturity, 

 old aGjs and decay, until it is finally absorbed 

 into the body of all-mother earth from which it 

 sprung. 



In the first place it should be held clearly in 

 mind that trees and the higher plants are 

 separated into sexes in the essential respects as 

 clearly distinguishable as in the higher animals. 

 The distinctive organs, however, are very often 

 borne on the same body, as is the case with all 

 our narrow-leaved evergreen trees, such as th? 

 spruce, pine, hemlock, cedar and balsam. They 

 are borne on separate individuals in the poplars 

 and willows, but there is no sex modification' of 

 body, the male and female trees being indis- 

 tinguishable except when in flower, since th; 

 flowers contain the sex organs. 



The Female Flowers. 



On the tips of small twigs, usually at the very 

 top of a spruce tree, one might find by looking 

 sharply in May or June little upright knobs about 

 a half inch long and as thick as a pencil. They 

 may be green like the leaves or purple, or pale 

 red according to the kind of spruce that b?ars 

 them and they are composed of 25 to 50 soft 

 overlapping parts called scales. At the base of 

 each scale rest two little flesh-colored bodies 

 about the size of a pinhead; each of these con- 

 tains the essential female c?ll and each has the 

 power, under certain conditions, of developing 

 into a seed. Carrying out the idea of sex dis- 

 tinction in trees, then, we may call these various 

 colored knobs on the lop branches the female 

 flowers. Later in life they become the cones. 

 The reader may be more familiar with a pine 

 cone. A spruce cone is built on the same plan 

 as a pine cone, but it is smaller and not so 

 noticeable, especially when it has fallen to the 

 ground. 



In another portion of the tree, usually at the 

 outer tips of the lower branches, one might also 

 find other little knobs very much like those in 

 the highest branches. Instead of being upright 



