COMMON, OR NORWAY SPRUCE FIR. 455 



As a species, the Common Spruce is distinguished by 

 having the leaves scattered upon the branches, quadran- 

 gular ; cones terminal, cylindrical, and pendant ; scales 

 naked and flat, their summits truncate ; cones from five 

 to seven inches in length, and from one and a half to 

 two inches broad. Seeds winged, small. Cotyledons from 

 seven to nine. 



This stately and elegant fir, for such it must be gene- 

 rally acknowledged, when seen in full and vigorous health, 

 and in a soil and situation congenial to its habit, is amongst 

 the loftiest of the European coniferse, yielding only, in this 

 respect, to the A. (pinea) pectinata, Silver Fir, which, 

 to a superior height, adds also a greater bulk and vastness 

 of trunk. In its native districts, and in favourable situ- 

 ations, it attains a height varying from one hundred and 

 twenty to one hundred and sixty feet, and even instances 

 have been met with, in which it has reached the enormous 

 altitude of one hundred and eighty feet. It grows in a 

 spire-like pyramidal form, the trunk being perfectly straight 

 and continuous from the base to the very summit, furnished 

 on all sides with numerous spreading branches, disposed 

 in regular whorls, which spring each year successively from 

 the base of the terminal bud or leading shoot. These 

 branches, where the tree has had sufficient air and room, 

 are retained during life, except it may be a few of the 

 lowermost, and those smaller shoots or abortive branches 

 which occasionally appear between the regular whorls. 

 In young trees the branches grow in a horizontal, or 

 a slightly upward direction, but as they increase in size 

 and age they become partially pendant, the extremities, 

 however, always continuing to turn upwards, a disposition 

 or form which gives a graceful and feathery appearance 

 to the general contour of the tree. This pendant or droop- 



