LXXVII. CONIFERS : A BIES. 



1031 



that of any other spruce; the leaves are also less numerous, longer, more 

 pointed, at a more open angle with the branches, and of a pale bluish green. 

 The male catkins are pendulous, on long footstalks, and of a brownish yellow. 

 The female catkins are ovate and pendulous. When ripe, the cones are small, 

 of a lengthened oval in shape, and a light brown colour ; the scales are loose 

 and thin, round or bluntly pointed, with entire edges. The seeds are minute, 

 with a very small wing, and ripen a month earlier than those of the black 

 spruce. When the tree is agitated with the wind, or when the cones are 

 gently struck with a stick, the seeds drop out, and fall slowly to the ground 

 with a tremulous fluttering motion, resembling a cloud of small pale brown 

 moths. The rate of growth, in the climate of London, in sandy soil some- 

 what moist, is from 12ft. to 15ft. in 10 years. In 30 years, the tree will 

 attain the height of from 30 ft. to 40 ft. ; but in dry soils it seldom reaches 

 either this age or height : indeed, all the American spruces may be considered, 

 in England, as short-lived trees. 



1 5. A. NI X GRA Poir. The black Spruce Fir. 



Identification. Poir. Diet. Encyc., 6. p. 520. ; Michx. N. Amer. Syl., 3. p. 176. 



Synonymcs. Pinus nlgra Ait. Ilort. Kew. 3. p. 370. ; P. mariana Ehr. Beyt 3. p. 23. ; /Tbies ma- 

 riana Wangh. Beyt. p. 75. ; double Spruce ; noire Epinette, Epinette a la BiSre, in Canada. 



Engravings. . Lamb. Pin., ed. 2., 1. t. 37. ; Michx. N. Amer. Syl., 3. t. 147. ; the plate of this tree 

 in Arb. Brit., 1st. edit., vol. viii. ; and our Jig. 1929. 



Spec. Char., $c. Leaves solitary, regularly disposed all round the branches ; 

 erect, very short, somewhat quadrangular. Cones ovate, pendulous ; scales 

 somewhat undulated ; the apex of the scale crenulated or divided. (Michx.) 

 Cones from 1* in. to If in. long, and from in. to nearly 1 in. broad. Seed 

 rather larger than that of A. alba, but the wing smaller. Leaves from .1 in. 

 to |- in. long. A large tree. Canada to Carolina, throughout the tracts of 

 high mountains. Height 60 ft. to 70ft. Introduced in 1700. Flowering 

 in May or June, and ripening its cones in the following April. 



Varieties. The kind generally designated as A. rubra (P. rubra Lamb.) is as- 

 serted by Michaux to be only a variety, or rather variation, of A. nigra, 

 produced by the influence of the soil on the wood, but we have treated it 

 as a subspecies, as it is tolerably distinct, and, at present, not common. 



The branches spread more in a horizontal than in a drooping direction, like 

 those of the Norway spruce ; 

 and, consequently, the black K 



spruce (notwithstanding the V \\ (U Ji \ v . 



darkness of its foliage) has 

 not the gloomy aspect; of the 

 European tree. The bark is 

 smooth and blackish. The 

 leaves are of a dark sombre 

 green ; they are short, being 

 scarcely ^ in. long, thickly set, 

 stiff, and are attached singly 

 to the branches, which they 

 cover all round. The male 

 catkins are cylindrical, erect, 

 and on peduncles ; about 1 in. 

 long ; yellowish, with reel- 

 tipped anthers. The female 

 catkins are oval, and at first 

 erect, but soon become pen- 

 dulous; they are purplish, and almost black, when young ; but become, 

 when ripe, of a dusky reddish brown. When full-grown, they are about 

 l^in. long, and fin. in diameter at the middle. The scales are blunt, 

 rounded, very thin, and, when ripe, rugged and torn on the margin, and some- 

 times half through the scale. The seeds are small, scarcely more than a line 



3 IT 4 



1929. A. nlgra. 



