Weeping Spruce 6i 



or brown with age. The stout winter buds arc mostly blunt-pointed, 8 to 15 mm. 

 long, covered with thin brown scales. The leaves are stout, stiff, 4-sided, 1.5 to 3 

 cm. long, sharply thick-pointed, bluish green or bluish white, changing to dark, 

 blue green with age ; they are provided with several rows of stomata on every side, 

 those on the upper sides being the most conspicuous; the leaves point forward 

 and outward from all sides of the twigs and are strongly incurved, those of the 

 fertile branchlets being much the shortest. The staminate flowers are oblong- 

 ovoid and reddish yellow; the pistillate flowers nearly cylindric and light green. 

 The cones are oblong-cyhndric, somewhat narrowed toward each end, 5 to 10 

 cm. long, 2.5 to 4 cm. thick, reddish green, becoming red-brown and shining, 

 usually persisting until the second winter. The scales are flattish, rhombic, blunt, 

 and irregular at the narrowed apex. The seeds are 3 mm. long, scarcely half the 

 length of their rounded, wedge-shaped wing. 



The wood of the Blue spruce is soft, weak, close-grained, hght brown to nearly 

 white and satiny; its specific gravity is about 0.37. Its use is purely local. 



This most variable yet beautiful spruce is admired for its abundance of bluish 

 leaves and its rapid growth. It thrives well in cultivation over a greater part of 

 the central and eastern United States, also in Europe; unfortunately it loses 

 much of its beauty and grows slowly and unsatisfactorily after reaching a height 

 of 12 meters or more. 



7. WEEPING SPRUCE Picea Breweriana Watson 



This beautiful tree is also called Brewer's spruce. It is very rare and local, 

 being known only from the mountains on either side of the Cahfomia-Oregon 

 State Hne, having for its center the Siskiyou mountains, on the dr}dsh sides of 

 which it occurs at an altitude of 1200 to 2250 meters, attaining a maximum height 

 of 36 meters, with a trunk diameter of 9 dm. exclusive of the usually swollen base. 



The branches are crowded, horizontal, or pendulous below, somewhat ascending 

 and shorter near the top; the lateral branchlets are very slender and pendulous, 

 and, as it seldom grows in crowded positions, is clothed to the ground. The 

 bark is 1.5 to 2 cm. thick, fissured into long, thin, closely scaly plates of a reddish 

 brown color. The twigs are finely hairy, reddish brown, becoming smooth and 

 dark grayish brown with age. The winter buds are conic, 6 to 7 mm. long, 

 and half as thick, their scales thin and hght brown. The leaves are hnear, flat- 

 tish, 2 to 3 cm. long, about 1.5 mm. wide, narrowed and blunt at the end, straight 

 or nearly so; the upper surface is marked by a prominent midrib and several rows 

 of stomata, the lower surface is slightly ridged, dark green and shining. The 

 staminate flowers are oblong, about 2 cm. long, and reddish pur])le. The pistil- 

 late flowers are oblong-cyhndric, 2.5 cm. long and over one third as thick. The 

 oblong cones are 6 to 12 cm. long, 2 to 3 cm. thick, narrowed toward both 

 ends, rather sharply pointed, obhquely rounded at the base, at first purple, 

 orange-brown and dull when ripe, opening late in the autumn and persist until 



