The Spruces 



Black as its name is, the wood is almost white, and the paper 

 needs little or no bleaching. 



The Engelmann Spruce (P. Engelmanni, Engelm.) is 

 the white spruce of the Rocky Mountains and the Cascade range 

 in Washington and Oregon. It crowns the lower and higher 

 peaks, climbing to altitudes between one and two miles above 

 the level of the sea. In the rocky sides of glacier-polished ravines 

 these hardy trees find foothold, and set their spires like serried 

 ranks of spearsmen to cover the bare cliffs. Snow loads them 

 down for many months of the year ; they can survive that, but 

 their destruction comes when a fire sweeps over them, killing 

 all it touches, for the cambium of these trees is protected by a 

 very thin bark. The seeds and seedlings go. There is no repro- 

 duction of forests thus destroyed. They give way to the lodge- 

 pole pine and other more fortunate species. 



The Engelmann spruce is planted in the Eastern States, 

 where it thrives. The disagreeable odour of the leaves counts 

 against it. But the finest trees cannot be seen unless a journey 

 be taken by the northernmost route to the Canadian Rocky 

 Mountains, where snows protect the forests from devastating 

 fires, and these spruce trees grow to 150 feet high, with diameters 

 of 4 or 5 feet. In late spring the blue-green foliage is jewelled 

 with the flowers, purple and scarlet. In autumn the showy 

 cones, with their shining brown, pointed scales hang out on 

 the highest twigs and fling down their black, winged seeds. 

 Here is a vastly different tree from the tame little seedling that 

 began life in a nursery row. 



The lumber value of the Engelmann spruce is high. It is 

 used for general building purposes, for fuel and charcoal. The 

 bark is sometimes used in tanning. 



The Red Spruce {P. rubens, Sarg.) is the most cheerful of 

 our Eastern species, because its foliage is yellowish green and 

 shining, the others blue-green. The colour in this tree's name 

 is derived from the wood, so the lumberman gave it, without 

 doubt. The slender, downy twigs are also bright red during 

 their first winter, and there is a distinct tinge of red in the tree's 

 brown bark. The flowers are rich purple and the cones glossy 

 reddish brown. It wears its colour in plain sight the year round. 



This tree forms considerable forests from Newfoundland 

 through New England, and follows the Alleghany Mountains 



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