1338 The Trees of Great Britain and Ireland 



appressed, with their tips directed forwards and slightly upwards. Leaves, variable 

 in size, usually | to | in., occasionally i in. long, rigid, straight or curved, ending in 

 a short callous point, rhombic in section, with two or three stomatic lines on each 

 of the four sides; resin-canals variable, occasionally absent or only one present, 

 usually two, one at each end of the transverse axis of the rhomb, close to the 

 epidermis. 



Staminate flowers solitary in the axils of the leaves of the branchlets of the 

 preceding year, rarely terminal on lateral branchlets, ovoid, about an inch long; 

 stamens numerous, spirally arranged, reddish, each with two pollen-sacs directed 

 downwards and dehiscing longitudinally, and a prominent denticulate connective; 

 pollen grains, each with two air- vesicles. 



Pistillate flowers, appearing in summer as brown buds at the tips of the 

 branchlets of the current year, developing in the following spring, about 2 in. long ; 

 sessile, erect, cylindrical, purplish red ; scales carmine red, oval, with a truncate 

 erose apex ; bracts about half the length of the scales, not increasing in size after 

 the time of flowering, ovate - lanceolate, denticulate, with a long acuminate apex. 

 After fertilisation the young cones leave the erect position, and gradually become 

 pendulous, their scales becoming closely imbricated, and in the usual form of the 

 species green in colour. 



Cones ripe in October, when they turn brownish ; cylindrical, pendulous, variable 

 in size, about 4 to 6 in. in length ; usually opening in spring and letting the seeds 

 escape when a dry east wind is blowing ; falling from the tree in the subsequent 

 summer or autumn ; scales thin and flexible, rhombic, with a truncate emarginate or 

 dentate apex, variable in size, f to f in. wide, i to i|^ in. long, pale brown and 

 glabrous on the exposed part, dark reddish brown and minutely pubescent on the 

 concealed part ; bract about ^ in. long, lanceolate, denticulate at the acute or 

 acuminate apex. Seed about ^ in. long, dark dull brown ; seed with wing about 

 f in. long ; wing broadest near the obliquely rounded denticulate apex. 



Seedling. — Seeds sown in spring germinate in four or five weeks, the radicle 

 first making its way out of the seed coats, and the caulicle carrying up the cotyledons, 

 which are at first enveloped as with a cap by the albumen of the seed. The cap is 

 soon cast off, and the cotyledons spread in a whorl. The cotyledons are six to ten in 

 number, united at their base by a sheath, about \ in. long, triangular in section, with 

 the upper edge faintly serrate, without resin-canals, stomatic on the two inner surfaces, 

 deciduous at the end of the second year. The plant at the end of the first year is 

 about 2 to 3 in. high, the young stem bearing, in addition to the whorl of cotyledons, 

 spirally arranged primary needles, which are rhomboidal in section, serrulate on the 

 four angles, with two resin-canals, and inserted on raised pulvini. Branching occurs 

 in the third or fourth year, when the leaves assume their adult form, being entire 

 and not serrulate. No tap root is formed, the root dividing into numerous branches 

 spreading in all directions. Throughout the life of the tree the absence of the tap 

 root, seen in the seedling, persists ; and the roots of the spruce are usually spreading 

 and do not penetrate the soil to any great depth. 



The spruce is normally monoecious, but instances have been known of 



