CANADIAN SPRUCES. 175 



brauclies, but, although spreading in direction at their bases, are more 

 or less cui'ved iqjwards in a secund manner, presenting a nearly- 

 uniform flattened brush-like surface of foliage. The cones vary in abso- 

 lute size, according to vigour of tree, etc., but are always of much 

 greater length and usually more slender than those of the other species, 

 being nearly cylindrical, not sensibly thickened in the middle as in 

 nigra, nor below the middle as in rubra. Dr. Bell well expresses 

 their form as fingei- shaped. The scales are also more numerous than 

 in the allied species, and the spiral arrangement is different. ■ The 

 cones are green at iirst, the individual scales being sometimes 

 clouded with a slight brown band-like patch on the exposed part, but 

 not extending to the edge. In ripening, the green color mellows into 

 a more or less decided straw color, but the cones w^hen mature are 

 never either dai'k or decidedly reddish. When of a lively straw- 

 color, and profusely produced all over the tree, as we often see them 

 along the shore, hancing down from the drooping tips of the young 

 branchlets, the contrast with the bright silver-frosted needle foliage 

 is very pleasing, so that the wdiite spruce is one of the most orna- 

 mental of our native trees, and admirably adapted for sea-side shelter. 

 The edges of the cone scales are always quite entire. 



Prof Bell, M.D., President of the Fourth Section of the Royal 

 Society, has very kindly made careful observations, and communicated 

 them to me, on the several points of difference between the white and 

 black spruces. Through his kindness, also, I have had opportunity 

 of examining specimens from widely separated localities throughout the 

 Dominion. His opjiortunities of travel, for observation and collec- 

 tion of specimens, during his long connection with the Geological 

 Survey of Canada, have been exceptionally favorable. Dr. Bell 

 points out that the most obvious distinctions between the black and 

 white spruce are (1) that the latter is a larger tree than the black, 

 coarser, lighter in general color, as well as in color of bark, twigs^ 

 etc. ; (2) that, in the white spruce, the boughs are stiffer, more vigor- 

 ous, and flatter than in the black; (3) that the cones differ in many 

 ways ; in the white, they are scattered all over the tree, although 

 most abundant near the top, and drop off every year, whereas the 

 black spruce cones adhere for two, three, four or five years — the cur- 

 rent year's crop being at the top (mostly), the previous year's next 



