176 PROCEEDINGS OF THE CANADIAN INSTITUTE. 



below, that of the year before still farther down, etc., the quantity of 

 cones diminishing downwards and tlieir age increasing. (4). The 

 white spruce cone is finger-shaped, and green in color till it dries and 

 opens, whereas the black is deep purjile and plum-shaped, bulging in 

 the centre. (5). The white is attached by a straight peduncle, the 

 black by a curved thickening one. (6). The number of scales in each 

 is very different, numerous counts of the scales of cones from many 

 trees in northern regions of the Dominion yielding the following 

 results : the white spruce cone seldom has fewer than 60 .scales or 

 more than 90 — average about 70 ; whilst the black seldom has many 

 over 30, the average may be about 33, — so that the white spruce 

 cone has more than double the number that the black has. Eleven 

 white spruce cones from a tree at Kingston, Ontario, gave an average 

 numVjer of 77, and of five cones of the same from a tree at the 

 Emerald Mine near Buckingham, (Co. Ottawa, P.Q.), the average 

 is 61. 



The white spruce is observed especially along the shores of the ocean, 

 estuai'ies and lakes, as in Cape Breton Island, around the Atlantic 

 and Bay of Fundy shores of Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, also 

 around the shores of the St. Lawrence Gulf and up the St. Lawrence 

 River, and along the Ontario lakes. Dr. Bell sends a beautiful 

 photograph of this species, showing its characters well, from Grand 

 Lake House, on the Upper Ottawa. I have a specimen collected at 

 Lake Winnipeg b\' his Hon. Lieut.-Governor Schultz, M.D., in the 

 summer of 1860. 



I desire specially to call the attention of observers to one point in 

 regard to the geographical distribution of Picea alba. For many 

 yeai's it has appeared to me to be essentially a maritime species, grow- 

 ing around the Atlantic and northern coasts of Canada, and extending 

 by way of the St. Lawrence Avestward to the great lakes, as far, at 

 least, as shewn by Governor Schultz's specimen, as Lake Winnipeg. 

 Its aVtsence in inland localities is not noticed, so far as I liave ascer- 

 tained, in published works, yet, even in the narrow jjeninsula of 

 Nova Scotia, bounded on one side by the Atlantic Ocean, and on the 

 other by the Bay of Fundy and waters connecting with the Gulf of 

 St. Lawrence, the absence or .scarcity of this tree in inland localities. 



