6i6 



THE SPRUCE. 



THE LEAVES. 



Last year's twig is a light yellow colour, and thickly covered 

 with spiral rows of dusky green needles. In May two or three new 



shoots spring from just below the tip and 

 form a cup, in the centre of which the 

 terminal shoot, also new-grown, carries on 

 the line of the parent twig. These new 

 shoots are covered with soft waxen pale- 

 green leaves, which all point towards the 

 apex, where sometimes the brown skin-like 

 covering; of the bud still form a little 

 cap. 



The new shoots soon bend down, and 

 the leaves at the base which were first 

 formed curve backwards and begin to be 

 spaced apart on the lengthening shoot. Other 

 young shoots are produced singly from the old wood, but these for 

 the most part die off and hardly interfere with the regular whorls of 

 shoots and succeeding branches. Each branch and twig has its similar cluster 

 ot new shoots, the only variation being in the more horizontal position of 

 those on the lateral branches as compared with those on the branches near 

 the apex of the tree. The needle-like leaves become dark green as the 

 year advances ; they remain on the tree for six years, and the branches as 

 well as the new shoots are thickly covered v/ith them, though the 

 normal growth of the wood carries them in time further apart. At the 

 junction of the leaf with the twig there is a raised cushion which 

 remains on the branches after the leaves have fallen. The leaves 

 when mature are stiff and sharply pointed, and instead of being 

 round or flat have four sides. Their average length is three quarters 



