216 TREES OF MINNESOTA. 



I/arix europea. European Larch. 



Leaves longer than those of the Tamarack, and of a brighter 

 green color. Cones longer than those of the Tamarack. A 

 large and important timber tree. 



Distribution. Native of northern and central Europe, on moist 

 mountain sides. 



Properties of Wood. Hard, strong, tough, very durable in 

 contact with the soil. Specific gravity, 0.62. 



Uses. The European Larch has been largely planted in the 

 Eastern States in small timber plantations, for windbreaks and 

 ornament. It is superior to our native Larch for these purposes, 

 but has not succeeded well on our Western prairies, probably on 

 account of the dry climate. On moist soil in somewhat sheltered 

 locations it often does well, and becomes a graceful, pretty tree. 

 Very large and successful plantations of this tree have been 

 made in Scotland and other European countries, but in some 

 parts of Germany the Japanese Larch is preferred, as it is not so 

 much infested with insects. The lumber is used for posts, tele- 

 graph poles, piles, beams and joists and in ship building. The 

 bark is used in tanning leather. One tree, grown at Owatonna, 

 Minnesota, attained a height of about fifty feet and a diameter 

 of fifteen inches in thirty years, but so rapid a growth is uncom- 

 mon here. 



Genus PICIJA. 



Leaves evergreen, scattered, not grouped in sheaths, jointed 

 on a persistent base, needle shaped, generally four-angled, short, 

 pointing every way, and all of one kind. Flowers appear, in 

 spring, monoecious; the staminate catkins in the axils of the 

 leaves of the preceding year; the pistillate catkins terminal ovoid 

 or oblong. Fruit a cone, maturing the first year, pendulous with 

 thin tough scales that open when ripe and dry, to liberate the 

 two, winged seeds, found at the base of each scale. Trees tall 

 and pyramidal or conical in form. 



Picea canadensis. (P. alba.} White Spruce. 



Leaves slender, one-half to one inch long, varying in color 

 from light glaucous to dark green, falling during fourth and fifth 

 seasons. Cones oblong, one to two inches in length, deciduous 



