The Spruces 



The genus Picea includes some of the most useful as well as 

 ornamental of the conifers. There are eighteen species, seven 

 of them American, distributed over the Northern Heimsphere. 

 The Norway spruce {P. excelsa. Link. ) is the commonest spe- 

 cies in cultivation. It is the familiar spruce of dooryards, grow- 

 ing to great size in this country, and evidently more comfortable 

 in domestication than our native species. The long cones hang 

 on the topmost branches, and the lower limbs droop to the 

 ground. It is planted for windbreaks, hedges and shelter belts, 

 often with white pine. The species is strongly recommended 

 for plantations of trees for timber. 



The Caucasian Spruce {P. orientalis, Carr.), graceful and 

 slow of growth, with lustrous, dark-green foliage, is well adapted 

 to small gardens. It retains its lower limbs until quite old. Two 

 or three Japanese species have been introduced. 



Black Spruce {Picea Mariana, B. S. & P.) Pyramidal 

 evergreen, with short, drooping branches, usually 30 to 40 feet 

 high, occasionally 80 feet high. Twigs downy. Bark thin, scaly, 

 brownish grey. Wood light, weak, soft, yellow. Buds brownish 

 red, downy, ovate. Leaves blue-green, with pale bloom above, 

 linear, sharp, stiff, j to f inch long, set around- twig. Flowers 

 cone-like, monoecious, solitary, axillary. Fruit oval cones, h to 

 I J inches long, pendant, persistent for many years; scales thin, 

 entire. Preferred habitat, dry lowlands, rocky slopes and bogs. 

 Distribution, Labrador to Alaska; south to Wisconsin, Pennsyl- 

 vania and northern Virginia. Uses: Locally as lumber and fuel. 

 Wood made into paper pulp. Resin used as chewing gum. Sap 

 made into beer. 



The least of all spruce cones grow on the black spruce trees, 

 and the tree is burdened with the empty husks of twenty or more 

 crops before it lets the oldest ones drop. It is a peculiar habit, 

 and gives the tree an unkempt, dingy appearance that the grey 

 bark intensifies. The habit of the tree is ragged and uneven, and 

 the foliage dull bluish grey. Altogether it is not to be won- 

 dered at that the black spruce is ignored by planters. The tree 

 has always proved short lived in gardens. 



v^ast forests of this timber will be converted into paper, 

 pruce timber grows to-day there are fortunes awaiting 

 P^ This wood that lumbermen reject exactly suits the 

 pulp man's needs. Thousands of acres are consumed every year. 



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