8 THE ADIRONDACK BLACK SPRUCE. 



a continual snapping, which makes it dangerous when burned in 

 open fire-places. 



Occasionally, this species grows thickly in masses, or what the 

 lumbermen term "clumps," but, as a general thinsr, it is distrib- 

 uted quite evenly through the forests in which it is found. 

 Throughout the Adirondack woods it forms on an avei age from 

 1" to 15 per cent of the timber. The Adirondack forests, as a 

 whole, are composed principally of hardwoods, the deciduous 

 trees including abou 7u per cerv., among which the remaining 

 30 per cent, of conifers are, as a general thing, somewhat evenly 

 dist ibutecl. The black spruce ishert found in company with the 

 maple, beech, and yellow birch, among which there is a further 

 but small admixture of ash, cherry, elm, bass wood, and iron wood. 

 The conifers ass elated with the spruce are composed of hemlock, 

 balsam (Abies balsamea), t unarack and white cedar, the various 

 species of pine having been nearly all removed by the lumber- 

 men years ago. Michaux makes the statement that this species 

 "often constitutes a third part of the forests by which ihej? are 

 uninterruptedly covered." One of our leading text-books on 

 botany states that "dark-mountain forests are often wholly com- 

 posed of it." While this statement may possibly be true of other 

 localities, there is certainly no such composition in the Adiron- 

 dack forests, aside fro ui the occasional but small clumps of spruce 

 previously referred to. 



In some localities there are large areas along the mountain 

 slopes covered with a heavy proportion of evergreens whose 

 sombre hues might give rise to such an impression to a distant 

 spectator, but a closer examination of such forests discloses a 

 large admixture of other conifers, together with a good propor- 

 tion of broad-leaf td trees which are apparent only in summer, 

 and which even then are liable to be overshadowed and hidden 

 by the overtopping or dominant crowns of tall conifers. 



In its habit the black spruce has very little of attraction or 

 beauty in its appearance. When growing in masses, all its 

 branches fall off, leaving groups of columnar, tapering shafts, 

 each of which is surmo anted by a small, sparsely-limbed and 

 irregular crown ; and this is also the case, to a considerable extent, 

 where it is distributed among the hardwoods with plenty of 

 surrounding space. When growing in openings, well removed 



