124 HARDY ON NOVA SCOTIAN CONIFERS. 



A. alba, Mich. (White Spruce.) 



The "V^Tiite Spruce, or Sea Spruce of the Indians, is, as has been 

 already stated, a conifer of an essentially boreal character. Indeed 

 in its extension into our own "VYOodlands it appears to prefer bleak 

 and exposed situations. It thiives on our rugged Atlantic shores, 

 and grows on exposed and brine- washed sands where no other vege- 

 tation appears, and hence is very useful, both as a shelter to the 

 land, and as holding it against the encroachment of the sea. Its 

 dark glaucous foliage assumes an almost inpeuetrable aspect under 

 these circumstances. On the sandy shores near the entrance of 

 Musquodoboit harbour there is a grove' of WTiite Spruce, which, 

 constantly exposed to S. W. gales, have become so compressed and 

 flattened at the tops, which lean inland fi-om the sea at scarcely ten 

 feet elevation, that a man can easily walk over them as on a plat- 

 form, and the shelter beneath is complete.* 



The Balsam Fir growing in these situations assumes a very simi- 

 lar appearance in the density and colour of its foliage and trunk to 

 the White Spruce, fi-om which, however, it can be quickly distin- 

 guished, on inspection, by the pustules on the bark and its erect 

 cones. In the forest the White Spruce is rare in comparison with 

 the Black, whose place it however altogether usurps on the sand hills 

 bordering the limit of vegetation in the far north-west. The former 

 tree prefers humid and rocky woods. The timber is used in frame 

 work. I know of no peculiar properties of this tree in an economi- 

 cal point of view, except, that the Indians affirm that the inner bark 

 or liher is useful to chew as a demulcent in the case of colds. 



General Description. — Leaves pale or glaucous ; cones cylindrical, 

 nbout 2 inches long, the scales with au entire edge. Leaves ^ to | inch in 

 length placed on all sides of the branches. The cones are first of all light 

 green, afterwards tinged with pink, and on ripening change to a very pale 

 brown. 



A. CoMadensis, Mich. (Hemlock Sprlce.) 



Leaves linear, flat, obtuse ^ inch long ; cones oval, of few scales, little 

 larger than the leaves, | inch long. 



The Hemlock Spruce has a wide range in the coniferous wood- 

 lands of North America, extending from the Hudson Bay territory 

 to the mountains of Georgia. This great southerly extension of the 



* The White Spruce is in frequent proves on the slopes of Point Vleasant. 

 There arc some trees of this species nearly GO feet in iieight on McXuh's Island. 



