CATALOGUE OF CANADIAN PLANTS. 469 



stream to Lake Athabasca (Lat. 59°), still maintaining its fine propor- 

 tions. It is probably a mistake to give the habitat of this species and 

 the next as being coincident, and to extend the range of the next into 

 northern Labrador and the barren grounds west of Hudson Bay, as all 

 specimens of spruce obtained from Labrador and the far north are this 

 species. {Macoun.) Newfoundland, Nova Scotia and throughout 

 Canada to Lat. 65°, where it terminates with Betula papyracea. 

 (Richardson.) Very likely a common tree in Northern British Colum- 

 bia, having been observed on the Blackwater and other rivers up to 

 Lat. 55°. (JDawson.') 



(2083.) P. alba, Link. White Spruce. 

 Finns alba, Poir. Hook. FI. II., 163. 



Abies alba, Poir. Michx. Fl. II., 207. Macoun's Cat. No. 1689. 

 Abies rubra, var. cserulea, Lindley & Gordon in Jour. Hort. Sec, London, 



v., 211. 

 Abies arctica, Murray in Sullann's Jour. Bot. V., 253 and 69. 



This species is easily recognized and separated from the preceding 

 by the difference of the cones. In the former they are quite short, sel- 

 dom an inch long, and the scales are eroded and deep purple, even 

 when quite old. On the other hand, this species has narrow, drooping 

 cones, never under an inch in length, and the scales pale straw-color or 

 brown at maturity. Begarding the distribution, I can only say that 

 Sir John Eichardsou and Prof Sargent assert that this species is really 

 the northern one, while I, on the other hand, hold the contrary opinion. 

 I have specimens from Truro, N.S., from Gasp^, from Nipigon, north 

 of Lake Superior, from various points on the prairie, and from the 

 foothills and lower slopes of the Eocky Mountains, but not one from 

 north of the Saskatchewan, except Dr. Dawson's, from the Athabasca • 

 all the specimens from that quarter and northern British Columbia 

 being most decidedly black spruce. In habit, this tree is totally dif- 

 ferent from P. nigra. While the latter loves damp localities, this 

 species prefers comparatively dry woods and is found mixed with pop- 

 lar, birch, and other trees. On the prairies, it is found on ^and-hills 

 and dry slopes of river banks, and this being the case, it is not reason- 

 able to expect it to take to cold and damp localities in the north when 

 reasoning from the habits of others, we should expect it to affect even 

 drier situations. Time will settle all these points, but no reliance should 

 be placed on any statement not founded on examination of the fruit. 

 Without doubt, this species, ranges from Newfoundland, Anticosti 

 Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, through Quebec and Ontario, west- 

 ward to the forest limit of Manitoba. In the prairie region it is found 

 on the sand-hills bordering the first prairie, steppe. Occasional trees 

 are met with in the Saskatchewan valley, and in the ravines of the 



