258 TREES GROWING IN SANDY SOIL. 



quantity of delicate winged seeds. Each scale, which is very 

 elaborately and perfectly constructed, is armed with a short 

 spine pointing downward, as if to protect its seeds from squir- 

 rels and birds. That hard, close cone, which defied all violent 

 attempts to open it, and could only be cut open, has thus 

 yielded to the gentle persuasion of warmth and dryness. 

 " The expanding of the pine cones, that, too, is a season." 



RED 5PRUCE. {Plate CXZ.) 



Plcea rubens. 



FAMILY SHAPE HEIGHT RANGE TIME OF BLOOM 



Pine. Pyramidal; branches, jo-ioofeet. Maine to Ga. "westward May, June, 



spreading, to Minnesota. 



Bark: reddish brown; scaly, or nearly smooth. Twigs: light green when 

 young; slender; pubescent. Leaves: olive-green; simple; scattered closely 

 along the branches; needle-shaped; straight or incurved above the middle; 

 pointed or rounded at the apex; lustrous at maturity. Cones : from one to two 

 and a half inches long; green, turning later to purplish brown; oval or ovoid, 

 and falling at the end of the first season or during the winter. Scales: undu- 

 late; often two-lobed. 



Although favouring gravelly slopes, the red spruce is also 

 found in the forests along with the white pine, the balsam fir, the 

 yellow birches and the sugar maples. It is most abundant in 

 northern New England and New York. In fact it is the prin- 

 cipal timber spruce of the northeastern United States. The 

 dense groves often formed by it appear like waves of rich, dark 

 colouring, and cast about deep and melancholy shadows. From 

 the black spruce the tree is rather unsatisfactorily distinguished 

 by the size and shape of its staminate blossoms and its cones. 

 The latter are the larger of the two, and they mature and fall 

 during their first winter. Those of the black spruce are often 

 persistent for many years. Recent observations by Dr. Britton 

 and by Prof. Peck, State botanists of New York, seem, however, 

 to indicate that they are different forms of one species. The 

 timber of the tree is similar to that of the black spruce. It is 

 light and soft, closely grained, and has a beautiful surface like 

 satin. For the flooring of houses it is much used. Paper pulp 



