FOREST TREES 



features and traces of its earlier years. 

 Its arms gradually bend inward, and 

 the whole tree becomes more cylin- 

 drical, till in its maturity it speaks 

 freely through its broken and twisted 

 boughs of storms and battles and in- 

 sect ravages of long ago; yet it strives 

 to cover its scars with luxuriant masses 

 of verdure and numberless purplish 

 cones — a truly magnificent spectacle 

 of a hoary veteran of crisp and sturdy 

 aspect. 



The Engelmann spruce, though a 

 smaller tree than either the red fir or 

 the lowland fir, is one of the most im- 

 portant of the spruces. Its home is 

 in the elevated regions of Colorado, 

 whence it spreads westward and north- 

 ward throughout the Rocky Mountains. 

 Its well rounded bole is scaly with small 

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