THE WHITE SPRUCE 



THE White Spruce is one of the most magnificent evergreens native to North 

 America. When growing in the open it is a beautiful, symmetrical tree, thickly 

 clothed with branches but having a tufted appearance that distinguishes it at 

 a glance from the Norway Spruce. Close at hand the branches are at once separated 

 from those of the Red Spruce and the Black Spruce by the fact that, while the bark of 

 the young twigs of the two latter species are both rather thickly covered with hairs, the 

 bark of the young twigs of the White Spruce is glabrous, lacking these hairs. It may also 

 often be distinguished by the fact that the leaves, especially when bruised, have a rather 

 unpleasant odor, as well as by their whitish color which gives the tree its common name. 



Like the other spruces this is a Northern species, ranging from Newfoundland to 

 Alaska and extending southward to the northern tier of states and British Columbia. 

 Throughout this vast range it grows with the other Spruces and by many lumbermen is 

 not distinguished from them. It is especially abundant along the coast of Maine. In the 

 more northern regions the trees sometimes reach a height of a hundred and fifty feet 

 and a trunk diameter of four feet, but commonly in more southern localities it reaches 

 a height of but sixty feet and a trunk diameter of two feet. The bark of the latest 

 season's shoots is generally reddish brown, while that of older branches is much darker. 

 The leaves are about four-fifths of an inch long, with sharply pointed tips, and 

 stripes of white dots on each of the four sides. The cones are borne on the tips of the 

 smaller twigs and when fully developed are of an average length of one and a half inches. 

 The margins of the scales are thin and rounded, the middle of the margin being commonly 

 truncate and generally entire. The small seeds with the wing attached are about a quarter 

 of an inch long. The cones drop off after the seeds are shed, and may generally be found 

 beneath the tree at any season of the year. 



The wood of the White Spruce is light in color, soft and weak, weighing but twenty- 

 five pounds per cubic foot. It is extensively used in the making of lumber and in the 

 manufacture of paper pulp. In Canada and the extreme Northern States this is one of 

 the most desirable evergreens for ornamental planting, but further south it is not adapted 

 to the climate and becomes unsightly as it grows older. 



The Western White Spruce or Engelmann's Spruce (Picea Engelmanni) is a splendid 

 tree that forms mountain forests from British Columbia southward. It seems to grow 

 naturally only at an elevation of at least a mile, although it thrives as an ornamental 

 tree near sea level in the Eastern States. Its chief objection for this purpose is found in 

 the disagreeable odor of the leaves. 



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