The Spruces 



Starveling shrub when the limits of its range are reached, but in 

 the coast regions of Oregon and Washington it is one of the 

 largest and most beautiful of the Western conifers. The graceful 

 sweep of its wide-spreading lower limbs gives a constant and 

 delightful play of light and shadow, owing to the lustrous sheen 

 on the upper sides of the leaves. 



In spite of all efforts to grow it in the East, it seems to 

 suffer from summer heat and drought and winter cold. It grows 

 in Boston if protected, but needs a great deal of coddling there. 



Genus PSEUDOTSUGA, Carr. 



Pyramidal trees with thick bark and hard, strong, durable 

 wood. Leaves linear, flat, spreading at right angles from the 

 twig; evergreen. Flowers solitary, cone-like, bright coloured. 

 Fruit heavy, drooping annual cones, with thin unarmed scales. 



KEY TO SPECIES 



A. Leaves blunt, dark green; cones small, with long bracts. 



{P. mucronata) douglas spruce 

 AA. Leaves sharp, blue-grey, cones large, with shorter bracts. 



(P. macrocarpa) big cone spruce 



The genus Pseudotsuga stands intermediate between the 

 hemlocks and firs, but the common name, as well as family traits, 

 link it with the spruces, hence I have joined it to Picea under the 

 common name spruce. The genus has two representatives in 

 America and one in Japan. The name is a startling combination 

 of the Japanese word Tstiga with a Greek prefix. 



Douglas Spruce, Red Fir (Pseudotsuga mucronata, Sudw.) 

 Pyramidal or flat-topped tree, 150 to 250 feet high, with long, 

 bare trunk in forest; in the open, a broad-based pyramid. 

 Branches slender, crowded, long, drooping. Spray finely divided. 

 Bark thick, deeply furrowed, with rounded irregular ridges coated 

 with red scales. JVood pale red or yellow, durable in water and 

 soil; variable in quality, usually tough and hard. Buds scaly, 

 acute. Leaves straight, linear, blunt at apex, i to i^ inches long, 

 yellowish or bluish green, shed in eighth year. Flowers cone- 

 like, staminate orange-red, pistillate red. Fruit a long-stemmed 

 cone, 2 to 4 inches long, drooping, scales thin, with entire margins; 



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