TREES GROWING IN RICH SOIL. 229 



blue-green; simple; growing thickly all along and on every side of the tan col- 

 oured tw.gs; needle-shaped; four-sided; curved or straight; rigid. Cones. : one- 

 half to one and a half niches long; rich purple, and turning later to reddish 



SSTrfllX COl< T ; V / te r V id; teri " i,li 5 solitar y a "d drooping at he 

 si tnt Mn b ; a " cl ^ es 5 ofte P ersiste ^^^ny years. Scales: rounded; per- 

 sistent, thin, and becoming wavy toothed at the apex. 



To speak definitely of the outlines of trees is often difficult, 

 for they adapt themselves with wonderful facility to the various 

 conditions under which they grow. The black spruce when it 

 inhabits dense thickets sends up a tall and slender shaft, quite 

 free from branches until near its top ; but when growing in an 

 open swamp with plenty of room for a free development it is 

 often clothed to the ground with vigourous boughs. It then is 

 very beautiful. After its youth has passed, however, and espe- 

 cially in cultivation it becomes scraggly and rough looking. 

 Only when the tree is surrounded by abundant moisture does 

 it thrive well, and near the coasts of southern New England, 

 New York and New Jersey, it occupies many small swamps 

 and bogs. From those of the red spruce its leaves are readily 

 distinguished for they are shorter and of a bluer tint of green. 

 The timber produced by the black spruce is valuable and 

 used among other purposes for the masts and spars of ships. 

 It is pale red or white, straightly grained, and is marked with 

 rather ornamental small knots. From the northern Indians it 

 was that Europeans first learned to boil its young twigs with 

 honey, and to extract the essence of spruce which is employed 

 in making beer of that name. 



WHITE SPRUCE. (Plate CXXIV.) 



Plcea Canadensis. 



FAMILY SHAPE HEIGHT RANGE TIME OF BLOOM 



Pine. Cone-shaped, slender. 30-100-150/^/. Maine and north April y May. 



-west to Minnesota. 



Bark: brown; scaly. Twigs: light buff; smooth. Leaves : light olive- 

 green; simple; growing closely and singly from all sides of the branches; 

 needle-shaped; four-sided; slender; slightly curved and sharply pointed on 

 the sterile branches ; more blunt on those that are fertile; glaucous. Staminate 

 flowers: pale red. Cones: one to two inches long ; pale green and turning 

 later to light brown or tan colour; solitary; drooping; terminal at the ends of 



