PICEA NIGRA, LINK. 13 



small trees at Bethany ; at Middlebury abundant in a swamp 

 of five acres (E. B. Harger, Rhodora, II, 126). 



South along the mountains to North Carolina and Tennessee ; 

 west through the northern tier of states to Minnesota. 



Habit. In New England, usually a small, slender tree, 10-30 

 feet high and 5-8 inches in diameter ; attaining northward 

 and westward much greater dimensions ; reduced at high 

 elevation to a shrub or dwarf tree, 2 or 3 feet high ; trunk 

 tapering very slowly, forming a narrow-based, conical, more or 

 less irregular head ; branches rather short, scarcely whorled, 

 horizontal or more frequently declining with an upward 

 tendency at the ends, often growing in open swamps almost 

 to the ground, the lowest prostrate, sometimes rooting at their 

 tips and sending up shoots ; spray stiff and rather slender ; 

 foliage dark bluish-green or glaucous. This tree often begins 

 to blossom after attaining a height of 2-5 feet, the terminal 

 cones each season remaining persistent at the base of the 

 branches, sometimes for many years. 



Bark. Bark of trunk grayish-brown, separating into rather 

 close, thin scales ; branchlets roughened with the footstalks 

 of the fallen leaves ; twigs in autumn dull reddish-brown with 

 a minute, erect, pale, rusty pubescence, or nearly smooth. 



Winter Buds and Leaves. Buds scaly, ovate, pointed, reddish- 

 brown. Leaves scattered, needle-shaped, dark bluish-green, the 

 upper sides becoming yellowish in the sunlight, the faces 

 marked by parallel rows of minute bluish dots which some- 

 times give a glaucous effect to the lower surface or even the 

 whole leaf on the new shoots, 4-angled, i-J of an inch long, 

 straight or slightly incurved, blunt at the apex, abruptly 

 tipped or mucronate, sessile on persistent, decurrent footstalks. 



Inflorescence. April to May, a week or two earlier than the 

 red spruce ; sterile flowers terminal or axillary, on wood of 

 the preceding year ; about | inch long, ovate ; anthers madder- 

 red : fertile flowers at or near end of season's- shoots, erect; 

 scales madder-red, spirally imbricated, broader than long, 

 margin erose, rarely entire. 



Fruit. Cones, single or clustered at or near ends of the 



