The Spruces 



He regards it as one of the most distinct of the spruces, admirable 

 in habit and beautiful in foliage — an ideal tree for ornamental 

 planting — but he cannot make it grow! His most careful efforts 

 have brought only failure, A tree that belongs to "dry mountain 

 ridges and peaks near the timber line " has a good excuse for 

 languishing in gardens on the wrong side of the continent. And 

 such a range puts the species out of reach of lumbermen for a 

 decade or two yet. The uses of this tree must be put down with- 

 out reference to man's ineffectual yearnings to claim it for his 

 own. It fulfils Nature's plan, lifting its graceful spire into the 

 clouds and hanging out its purple flowers where there is no 

 human eye to see. 



Tideland Spruce, Sitka Spruce {Picca Sitchensis, Carr.) — 

 Tree with tapering trunk and enlarged base, loo to 200 feet high, 

 with broadly pyramidal head of drooping branches. Bark red- 

 dish brown, thin, scaly. Wood light, soft, straight grained, 

 satiny, light reddish brown. Buds lustrous, scaly, conical, \ 

 to i inch long. Leaves silvery white above, green beneath, \ 

 to I inch long, flattened, twisted, pointed, horny tipped, all 

 around the twig. Flowers : staminate on side twigs, abundant, 

 dark red, conical, J to i^ inches long; pistillate on terminal 

 twigs of upper branches, smaller, oblong. Cones annual, stalked, 

 pendant, 3 to 5 inches long, with elongated scales toothed at 

 tips, fall in winter. Preferred habitat, moist, sandy soil; swamps. 

 Distribution, coast region, Alaska to Cape Mendocino in Cali- 

 fornia. Uses: Important lumber for interior woodwork in 

 buildings, boat building, woodenwares, cooperage and fencing. 

 Ornamental tree in Europe, and in the warmer parts of the 

 eastern United States. Most important lumber in Alaska. Used 

 for fuel, construction of buildings, boats, and fencing, wooden 

 utensils and boxing. 



The swamps of the tidewater regions of the Northwest, the 

 rocky slopes (if well watered) of the Alaskan ranges of moun- 

 tains facing the sea, are clothed with forests of this remarkable 

 tree. Like the bald cypress of the Southeast and the pump- 

 kin ash of the valley of the Arkansas, this lover of swamps 

 is buttressed and much enlarged at its base. The indomitable 

 hardihood of the species is shown where it climbs from sea level 

 to an altitude of 3,000 feet, and follows the coast to the northern- 

 most point reached by any conifer. The tree dwindles to a 



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