THE SPRUCE. 615 



tapering trunk which ends in a bare spire ; the lower ones are 

 drooping with re-curved ends ; the upper ones lie, each in succession, 

 rather more level till a point is reached, towards the summit of the 

 tree, when they begin to incline slightly upwards. 



To correspond with this gradual change of position there is a 

 regular diminution in the length of the branches from the base to 

 crown of the tree. Each branch is in its degree moulded on the 

 same plan, except that the branchlets carried near its base are killed 

 off by the dense overshadowing foliage above. The surviving twigs 

 spring from all sides of the parent branch, bend downwards and 

 curve up again at the tip. In each lesser ramification there is the 

 same precise regularity. The double curve, repeated on every tier of 

 branches, repeated again, many times, from whatever point our obser- 

 vations are made (whether directly to the front or to the side of 

 us ; at the level of the eye or above it), is yet never monotonous ; it 

 is a study in perspective of infinite variety. The arrangement of 

 the branches greater and less might be compared with the fronds of 

 a bracken fern, though the comparison is less forcible in the case of 

 a Spruce than it is with some other coniferous trees, where all the 

 branches are produced laterally and lie horizontally. Where the trees 

 are crowded together, or when they are old, the formal growth 

 almost entirely disappears. The branches become less regular, and 

 through the gaps left between them the outline of the trunk can be 

 traced from top to bottom. The sparse foliage and the shorter 

 scattered twigs lie more stiffly and horizontally, and the heavy droop 

 of the free-grown branches, which have a curve like the young moon, 

 is lost. 



