WHITE SPRUCE 



Pesse : Serente " Alpes " : Sapin gentil : Finesse (5) : Bois blanc 

 du Nord : Sap : Epicea : Pesse : Sapin blanc du Nord : Sapin 

 de Perse in France (28). Fichte (4) : Gemeine Roth Tanne : 

 Lafie (5) : Pechtanne : Edeltanne (36). 



Sources of Supply. The mountains of North and Central 

 Europe. Introduced into many other countries with a similai 

 climate. 



Physical Characters, etc. Recorded dry-weight 21-48$ Ibs. per 

 cu. ft. Hardness Grade 7, compare English Birch, but rather 

 softer. Burns well, ignites readily, extremely noisy : embers 

 glow in still air : ash brown and small in quantity : practically 

 no smell, otherwise as Pinus sylvestris. Surface of the ground- 

 tissue satiny and brilliant : crystalline under the lens. 



Bark. When "young, reddish-brown, scaling in very fine 

 flakes : when old, covered with roundish corky scales." 



Authorities. Kew List (58), p. 65. Nordlinger (86), vol. iii. 

 p. 9. Schwartz (106), p. 477. Laslett (60), pp. 313, 338. 

 Stevenson (113), p. 186. Smith (in), p. 175. Petsche (92), 

 p. 75. Wiesner (131), L. 6, p. 147. Mathieu (37), p. 540. 



Uses, etc. Light, elastic : paper-pulp, scaffold-poles, spars, 

 etc., match-boarding, deals, packing-cases and other purposes 

 too numerous to mention. Splits readily and straight : fairly 

 durable. Fiddles and sounding-boards. " The better quality 

 from the higher altitudes " (37). 



Colour. White or brownish. No distinction between sap- 

 wood and heart- wood. " Light red from the North of Europe, 

 off marshy soil " (37). 



Anatomical Characters. Similar to those of Pinus sylvestris, 

 No. 242. The rings are very clear : the boundary darker in 

 colour than the rest of the wood, varying from a fine line to half 

 the width of the ring : gently undulating in contour. The hori- 

 zontal resin-ducts are not distinguishable in the solid wood with 

 the microscope (2 inch) from the ordinary rays in tangential 

 section. In some kinds (Hazelfichten) there are " ray-like lines 

 resembling the rays of the Hazel " (37). In longitudinal section 

 the rings boundaries are not prominent except in fast-grown 

 wood. 



Type specimens from commercial sources and from trees known 

 before felling. 



No. 236. WHITE SPRUCE. Picea alba. Link. 

 PLATE XVI. FIG. 137. 



Natural Order. Coniferae. 



Synonyms. Abies alba, Michx. A. canadensis, Mill. Finns 

 alba, Lamb. Picea laxa, Ehrh. 



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