1 376 The Trees of Great Britain and Ireland 



in margin. Seeds dark brown, about in. long, with pale brown wings broadest 

 above the middle and very oblique at the apex. 



Dwarf and fastigiate forms, 1 and varieties in which the foliage is variegated with 

 white or golden yellow in colour are mentioned by Beissner. 



Var. Doumetii, Carriere, Com/. 242 (1855). This variety was first noticed about 

 1835 in the garden of the Chateau de Baleine 2 near Moulins in France. It is a small 

 tree or large shrub, with short numerous branches, forming a dense conical pyramid 

 of foliage. The leaves are very crowded, thin and sharp-pointed. As seen at Kew 

 this variety is very distinct in appearance. 



There are remarkable black spruces 3 in the Wilhelmshohe and Karslane parks at 

 Cassel in Germany, which are pyramidal in habit and bluish in foliage. Self-layering 

 occurs, and numerous colonies of young plants are produced round the parent trees. 



Distribution 



The black spruce is widely spread throughout the Dominion of Canada, occur- 

 ring as far north as Labrador on the Atlantic coast, and reaching lat. 65 in the 

 valley of the Mackenzie River, whence, crossing the Rocky Mountains, it spreads in 

 the interior of Alaska to the valley of the White River. 4 Farther south, it is restricted 

 to the eastern side of the Rocky Mountains, extending throughout Alberta, Assiniboia, 

 northern Saskatchewan, and northern Manitoba (where it attains its largest size) to 

 central Wisconsin and Michigan. It is common in Newfoundland and all the eastern 

 provinces of Canada, except southern Ontario ; and spreads in the north-eastern 

 United States to Pennsylvania, reaching its most southerly point in the Alleghanies 

 in southern Virginia. 



Towards the northerly part of its range it is abundant, and grows on well- 

 drained alluvial soils and on the stony slopes of barren hills ; while towards the south 

 it is almost entirely restricted to bogs and swamps. Mr. H. E. Ayres in Garden and 

 Forest, vii. 504, fig. 80 (1894), describes and figures it under these conditions in 

 Minnesota, as the " Muskeag" spruce, this being the name by which the sphagnum 

 bogs so common in North America are known. He states that in these swamps 

 the trees grow slowly to a height of 60 ft. with-very drooping branches, the trunks 

 never exceeding about 10 in. in diameter. The cones are densely crowded at the 

 summit of the tree, and are sometimes produced on trees only 3 ft. high. 



(A. H.) 

 Cultivation 



The black spruce was introduced 6 into England by Bishop Compton about 

 1700 ; but Sir W. Watson, who gave a list of the principal trees which he found in 

 the Fulham Palace gardens in 1751, does not include it. 



1 For Picea nigra, var. virgata, Rehder, see under P. rubra, p. 1378. 



2 When I visited this place in 19^9, I found that the original specimen, a tree about 30 ft. high, was dead ; but two 

 plants grown from its layers are now alxwt 15 ft. high, with pointed tops ; while others, which were raised from cuttings, 

 form dense dwarf bushes. -(H. J. E. ) ' 



See Card. Chron. xi. 8 1, Suppl. Must. (1 892). The black spruce appears to layer frequently ; and Loudon figures an 

 instance which was noticed in 1828 at Braco Castle, Perthshire. 



4 Cf. Sargent, Silva N. Amer. xiv. 106(1902). * Aiton, Hort. Kew, iii. 371 (1789). 



