PINACE.E 



39 



at the base, nearly black, about ' long and much shorter than their broad very oblique 

 wings. 



A tree, with disagreeable smelling foliage sometimes 120 high, with a trunk 3 in diam- 

 eter, spreading branches produced in regular whorls and forming a narrow compact pyram- 

 idal head, gracefully hanging short lateral branches, and comparatively slender branch- 

 lets pubescent for three or four years, light or dark orange-brown or gray tinged with brown 

 during their first winter, their bark beginning to separate into small flaky scales in their 

 fourth or fifth year; at its highest altitudes low and stunted with elongated branches 

 pressed close to the ground. Winter-buds conic or slightly obtuse, with pale chestnut- 

 brown scales scarious and often free and slightly reflexed on the margins. Bark '-' 

 thick, light cinnamon-red, and broken into large thin loose scales. Wood light, soft, not 

 strong, close-grained, pale yellow tinged with red, with thick hardly distinguishable sap- 

 wood; largely manufactured into lumber used in the construction of buildings; also 

 employed for fuel and charcoal. The bark is sometimes employed in tanning leather. 



Fig. 42 



Distribution. High mountain slopes, often forming great forests from the mountains 

 of Alberta, British Columbia and Alaska, southward over the interior mountain systems 

 of the continent to southern New Mexico (the Sacramento Mountains) and northern 

 Arizona, from elevations of 5000 at the north up to 11,500 and occasionally to 12,000 

 at the south, and westward through Montana and Idaho to the eastern slopes of the Cas- 

 cade Mountains of Washington and Oregon; attaining its greatest size and beauty north 

 of the northern boundary of the United States. 



Occasionally planted as an ornamental tree in the New England states and northern 

 Europe, where it grows vigorously and promises to attain a large size; usually injured in 

 western Europe by spring frosts. 



5. Picea pungens Englm. Blue Spruce. Colorado Spruce. 



Picea Parnjana Sarg. 



Leaves strongly incurved, especially those on the upper side of the branches, stout, rigid, 

 acuminate and tipped with long callous sharp points, l'-lf long on sterile branches, often 

 not more than half as long on the fertile branches of old trees, marked on each side by 4-7 

 rows of stomata, dull bluish green on some individuals and light or dark steel-blue or silvery 

 white on others, the blue colors gradually changing to dull blue-green at the end of three or 

 four years. Flowers: male yellow tinged with red; female with broad oblong or slightly 

 obovate pale green scales truncate or slightly emarginate at the denticulate apex, and acute 

 bracts. Fruit produced on the upper third of the tree, sessile or short-stalked, oblong- 



