SPRUCE FIRS. 23 



to SO feet high, with a straight stem, of a uniform size, for 

 two-thirds of its height. 



The wood is less valuable than any of the other resinous 

 trees in North America, but the bark is inestimable for the 

 purposes of the tanner, and spruce beer is made from the 

 branches. 



It is found in the most northern regions of Canada, and on 

 the highest mountains, as far as South Carolina. Michaux 

 says it begins to appear about Hudson's Bay, the Lake of St. 

 John, and in the neighbourhood of Quebec, and that it fills 

 the forests in Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Maine, Vermont, 

 and the upper part of New Hampshire, in company with the 

 Black Spruce, where it constitutes three-fourths of the ever- 

 green woods. There are the following varieties, viz. : 



Abies Canadensis nana, Laiuson. 

 Syn. Tsuga Canadensis nana, Carriere. 

 A dwarf variety, not growing more than two or three feet 

 high, and spreading on the ground with a more tufty foliage. 



Abies Canadensis gracilis, Waterer, the Slender Hemlock 



Spruce. 



Syn. Abies Canadensis microphylla, Hort. 



This is a very singular-looking variety of the Hemlock 

 Spruce, on account of its slender shoots, thin appearance, and 

 small foliage. The leaves are linear, blunt-pointed, glossy 

 above and glaucous below ; more or less obliquely placed all 

 round the shoots, and seldom more than three lines lono-. 

 Branches and branchlets very slender, little divided, more or 

 less drooping at the ends, and rather thickly covered with the 

 small, obliquely -placed leaves. 



A very distinct and singular-looking variety, raised in the 

 Nursery of Messrs. Waterer and Godfrey, at Knaphill, in 

 Surrey. 



