PICEA RUBRA, LINK. 15 



slopes ; New Hampshire, throughout ; the most abundant 

 conifer of upper Coos, the White mountain region where it 

 climbs to the alpine area, and the higher parts of the Connect- 

 icut-Merrimac watershed ; Vermont, throughout ; the com- 

 mon spruce of the Green mountains, often in dense groves on 

 rocky slopes with thin soil ; Massachusetts, common in the 

 mountainous regions of Berkshire county and on uplands in 

 the northern sections, occasional southward ; Rhode Island 

 and Connecticut, not reported. 



South along the Alleghanies to Georgia, ascending to an altitude 

 of 4500 feet in the Adirondacks, and 4000-5000 feet in West Vir- 

 ginia ; west through the northern tier of states to Minnesota. 



Habit. A hardy tree, 40-75 feet high ; trunk 1-2^ feet in 

 diameter, straight, tapering very slowly; branches longer than 

 those of the black spruce, irregularly whorled or scattered, the 

 lower often declined, sometimes resting on the ground, the 

 upper rising toward the light, forming while the tree is young 

 a rather regular, narrow, conical head, which in old age and in 

 bleak mountain regions becomes, by the loss of branches, less 

 symmetrical but more picturesque ; foliage dark yellowish- 

 green. 



Bark. Bark of trunk smoothish and mottled on young 

 trees, at length separating into small, thin, flat, reddish scales ; 

 in old trees striate with shallow sinuses, separating into ashen- 

 white plates, often partially detached ; spray reddish or yellow- 

 ish white in autumn with minute, erect, pale rusty pubescence. 



Winter Buds and Leaves. Buds scaly, conical, brownish, 

 i inch long. Leaves solitary, at first closely appressed around 

 the young shoots, ultimately pointing outward, those. on the 

 underside often twisting upward, giving a brush-like appear- 

 ance to the twig, i-J inch long, straight or curved (curvature 

 more marked than in P. nigra), needle-shaped, dark yellowish- 

 green, 4-angled ; apex blunt or more or less pointed, often 

 mucronate ; base blunt ; sessile on persistent leaf -cushions. 



Inflorescence. May. Sterile flowers terminal or axillary 

 on wood of the preceding year, ^-| inch long, cylindrical ; 

 anthers pinkish-red : fertile flowers lateral along previous 



