362 NEW ENGLAND TREES IN WINTER. 



BLACK SPRUCE 

 Swamp, Bog, Water or Double Spruce. 



Picea mariana (Mill.) BSP. 

 P. nigra Link ; P. brevi folia Peck. 



HABIT In New England usually a small slender tree 10-30 ft. in 

 height with a trunk diameter of 5-8 inches, much larger northward and 

 westward, reduced to a shrub 2-5 ft. in height at high altitudes; with 

 relatively short, generally scattered branches, horizontal or usually 

 declined and curving upward at the ends; in open-grown trees, basal 

 branches frequently resting on the ground, taking root and sending up 

 shoots; crown an irregular open narrow-based cone; foliage bluish- 

 green. 



BARK Grayish-brown, flaky, with thin scales. 



TWIGS Brown or yellowish-brown, more or less densely covered with 

 short rusty to black hairs. 



LEAF-SCARS Alternate, more than 2-ranked on strongly projecting 

 decurrent ridges of the bark. BUNDLE-SCARS single. 



LEAVES Bluish-green, 4-angled, 5-15 mm. long, blunt-pointed, 

 straight or slightly incurved, without proper leaf-stalks. 



BUDS Ovate, pointed, reddish-brown. 



FRUIT Ovate cones, % to 1% inches long becoming nearly spherical 

 when open, on short strongly recurved stalks generally remaining on 

 the tree for many years. SCALES stiff, thin; margin rounded, uneven, 

 ragged, toothed or rarely entire. 



COMPARISONS The Black Spruce closely resembles the Red" Spruce 

 from which it may be distinguished by its shorter, more nearly spherical 

 cones which generally remain for many years on the tree, by the more 

 ragged edging of the cone-scales, by the bluish-green color of its foliage 

 and by its habitat in swampy land. Extreme forms of the two species 

 are sufficiently distinct but they are often difficult to distinguish even 

 in the fruiting condition. 



DISTRIBUTION Swamps, sphagnum bogs, shores of rivers and ponds, 

 wet, rocky hillsides; not uncommon, especially northward, on dry up- 

 lands and mountain slopes. Labrador, Newfoundland, and Nova Scotia, 

 westward beyond the Rocky mountains, extending northward along the 

 tributaries of the Yukon in Alaska. 



IN NEW ENGLAND Maine common throughout, covering extensive 

 areas almost to the exclusion of other trees in the central and northern 

 sections, occasional on the top of Katahdin (5,215 ft.); New Hampshire 

 and Vermont common in sphagnum swamps of low and high altitudes; 

 the dwarf form, var. semiprostrata, occurs on the summit of Mt. Mans- 

 field; Massachusetts frequent; Rhode Island not reported. 



IN CONNECTICUT Swamps and sphagnum bogs. Rare or local over 

 most of the state but absent near the coast. Usually a small stunted 

 tree 5 to 15 ft. high but growing much larger in the cool swamps of 

 Litchfield county. In open bogs the trees often produce cones when 

 not more than 5 ft. high, and the cones persist on the tree for many 

 years. 



WOOD Light, soft, not strong, pale yellowish-white, with thin sap- 

 wood probably rarely used outside of Manitoba and Saskatchewan 

 except in the manufacture of paper pulp. Spruce gum is gathered from 

 this and the other New England spruces. Spruce beer is made by 

 boiling the branches of the Black and Red Spruces. 



