1382 The Trees of Great Britain and Ireland 



4. Var. coerulea, Carriere, Conif. 320 (1867). 



Pinus glauca, Moench, Biiume Weiss. 73 (1785). 



Abies rubra casrulea, Loudon, Arb. et Frut. Brit. iv. 2316 (1838). 



Abies coerulea, Forbes, Pin. Woburn. 99 (1839). 



Picea casrulea, Link, in Linmea, xv. 522 (1841). 



Pinus rubra violacea, Endlicher, Syn. Conif. 114 (1847). 



Picea canadensis glauca, Sudworth, in U.S. Forestry Bulletin, No. 14, p. 37 (1897). 



A small tree of dense pyramidal habit, with very glaucous leaves closely pressed 

 against the branchlets. This variety, which according to Carriere frequently arises 

 in the seed-bed, appears to have been known since 1785, and is unquestionably a 

 form of P. alba, though it has been by various authorities ascribed to P. rubra. 



(A. H.) 



Distribution 



The white spruce is a native of eastern Canada and the northern part of the 

 United States, extending southward to the Black Hills of Dakota, the northern 

 parts of Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Michigan, New York, Vermont, northern New 

 Hampshire, and the coast of Maine as far south as Casco Bay. It is recorded 1 for 

 a few stations in Massachusetts, its most southerly limit. 



Its westerly distribution in the Dominion of Canada is uncertain ; but 

 according to Dr. Lawson, the white spruce is essentially a maritime species, 

 growing along the Atlantic and northern coasts of Canada, and extending by way of 

 the St. Lawrence to the great lakes, as far as Lake Winnipeg. It is common in 

 Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick, and on the streams which flow 

 from the north into the St. Lawrence, ranging westward through Ontario to the 

 treeless plains of Manitoba, where it occupies sandhills and the dry slopes of river 

 banks. In Labrador it is widely but not generally distributed, growing in the south 

 in well-watered valleys and ascending rocky hills to elevations of 2000 ft. West of 

 Hudson Bay it grows to a large size on river terraces to the borders of the barren 

 lands ; and its stems choke the mouths of every arctic American river, strewing 

 the shores with driftwood and testifying to its abundance on their shifting banks. 2 



Cultivation 



The white spruce was first described by Miller in 1731, and is said by Loudon 

 to have been introduced into England by Bishop Compton in 1700. 



Though the name is often found in nursery catalogues and it has no doubt been 

 planted in many places, yet it is nowhere in England so far as we have seen of any 

 special value, either as a timber or an ornamental tree. In some parts of Denmark, 

 however, it has been largely planted as a shelter tree on poor sandy land, in alternate 

 rows with Pinus montana, as it is found to grow on poorer soil and to bear salt sea 



1 Dame and Brooks, Trees of New England, 17 (1902). 



8 E. T. Seaton, Arctic Prairies, 329 (1912), measured a tree near Fort McKay 118 ft. high. A log here, 84 ft. long, 

 was 22 in. in diameter at the butt and 15 in. at the small end. At tree limit on the eastern shore of Artillery Lake, a tree, 

 8 ft. high and I ft. in diameter at the butt, showed 300 annual rings. 



