82 



Wyoming Experiment Station. 



only by the oval scars of the fallen leaves. The accom- 

 panying figure will make this plain. 



(1) ENGELMANN SPRUCE. 



(Picea Engelmanm Engelm.) 

 "Grove nods to grove." Pope. 



Description. Leaves from ]/ 2 to I inch in length, singly and somewhat 

 uniformly distributed upon the branches, four-angled, abruptly sharp pointed; 

 cones oval or oblong, about 2 inches long and half as thick; scales thin, 

 tough, ovate, with a square-cut tip which is entire or may bear a few small 

 teeth. 



This is the most important forest tree in the state. 

 Hundreds of square miles in our higher mountains are 

 completely clothed with it. Though not the largest of 

 our trees, yet it attains in favorable situations a great 

 size, becoming perhaps IOO feet in height and two feet or 

 more in di- 

 ameter. It 

 is rarely 

 found much 

 below 9,000 

 feet and 

 from that 

 altitude up 

 to timber- 

 line it is us- 

 ual ly the 

 only spe- 

 cies. At the 

 upper limit 



of trees it becomes merely a spreading, prostrate shrub, 

 buried for months beneath the load. of the winter snows. 

 These are strikingly different in appearance from the tall,, 

 spire-shaped trees on the lower slopes. 



XII. Leaves of the true Spruces, i. Blue. 2. Engelmann. 



