100. PICEA ALBA WHITE SPRUCE. 43 



GENUS PICEA, LINK.* 



Leaves evergreen, scattered (not clustered at the base), sessile, jointed upon a per- 

 sistent base, short (| to f in.) needle-shaped, 4-angled, pointing every way and all of 

 one kind. Flowers appear in spring, monoecious ; the sterile in the axils of the 

 leaves of the preceding year ; anthers tipped with a recurved appendage, cells open- 

 ing lengthwise ; fertile flowers in terminal catkins. Fruit, cones maturing the first 

 year, pendulous with scales thin (neither thickened nor furnished with a spur at the 

 apex) persistent on the axis. Otherwise quite as described for the genus Pinus. 



(Pic fa is the ancient Latin name.) 



ioo. PICEA ALBA, 



WHITE SPRUCE. 

 Gcr., Schimmel-Fichte; Fr., Sapin ~blanc ; Sp., Abeto Uanco. 



SPECIFIC CHARACTERS. Leaves slender (more so than in P. nigra, as well as av- 

 eraging longer) pale glaucous green ; branchlets glabrous. Fruit a cylindrical, nod- 

 ding cone about 2 in. in length, deciduous in autumn, the scales thin, not rigid, with 

 entire margin. 



A beautiful tree, similar to the Balsam Fir in pyramidal habit of 

 growth, with horizontal and gracefully deflected branches. It sometimes 

 attains the height of 150 ft. (50 m.) with a trunk 3 or 4 ft. (1 m.) in 

 diameter, and with reddish-brown bark flaking off in irregular scales. 



HABITAT. Newfoundland and Labrador westward to the Eocky 

 Mountains and northwestward to Alaska, In the United States it is 

 found in northern Maine and westward in localities along the northern 

 tier of states to Montana, where it attains its best development, growing 

 in moist soil. 



PHYSICAL PROPERTIES. Wood light, soft, of only moderate strength, 

 compact, of a satiny lustre and of a slightly yellowish white color, the 

 heart-wood and sap-wood being hardly distinguishable. Specific Gravity, 

 0.4051; Percentage of Ash, 0.32; Relative Approximate Fuel Value, 

 0.4038; Coefficient of Elasticity, 102280; Modulus of Rupture, 747; Re- 

 sistance to Longitudinal Pressure, 342 ; Resistance to Indentation, 74 ; 

 Weight of a Cubic Foot in Pounds, 25.25. 



USES. A very useful timber for general construction purposes, floor- 

 ing, sounding-boards for musical instruments, paper-pulp, etc., as with 

 the Black Spruce from which it is not distinguished in commerce. 

 Spruce chewing-gum is in part the product of this tree. 



MEDICINAL PROPERTIES. Little if any used for medicinal purposes 

 though the properties mentioned of the Black Spruce (Part I, pp. 69-70) 

 would doubtless be true of this also. 



* When " American Woods" Part I appeared we followed the classification adopted by the then 

 last edition of Gray's Manual (the fifth) in makiner Picea of Link a branch of the genus Abies of 

 Tournefort (which also included Tsugn of Endlicher), and it is so defined in Part I The inclina- 

 tion of systematists now however, is to divide the comprehensive genus Abies, as defined bv Tourne- 

 fort, making distinct genera of the branches Picea and Tsuga, and applying the name Abies in the 

 more restricted sense as defined by Link to the remaining branch. This is the classification followed 

 by the sixth edition of Gray's Manual, etc., and is here now adopted. 



+ Picea laxa, Ehrhart. 



