360 XEW ENGLAND TREES IX WINTER. 



RED SPRUCE 



Picea rubra (Du Roi) Dietr. 

 P. nigra, var. rubra Engelm. ; P. ruhcns Sarg 



HABIT A tree 40-75 ft. in height with a trunk diameter of 1-2^ 



ft.; trunk straight, slowly tapering; branches toward the middle of the 

 tree horizontal with upward tips, more or less strongly declined 

 toward the base forming- a narrow conical head somewhat broader than 

 that of the Black Spruce; foliage dark yellowish-green. 



BARK — Reddish-brown, flaky with thin scales. 



TAVIGS — Brown, mijre or less densely covered with short rusty to 

 black hairs. 



LEAF-SCARS — Alternate, more than il-ranked, on strongly projecting 

 decurrent ridges of the bark. BUXDLE-SCARS — single. 



LEAA'ES — Dark yelli iwish-green, 4-angled, 10-20 mm. long, blunt- 

 pointed, straight or curved, without pri-'per leaf-stalks. 



BL'DS — Ovate, pointed, reddish- brown. 



PRUIT — r)vate-oblung cones, lU-2 inclies long, with short stalks not 

 at all or Vmt slightl\' recur\"ed. falling the first autumn or sometimes 

 remaining i>n the tree a j"ear longer. SCALES — -stiff, thin ; margin 

 r<uinded. eiuire or slightly toothed. 



COMPARISOXS^ — The Red Spruce from its close resemblance to the 

 Black Spruce is considered by some authors as merely a variety of this 

 latter species i see Black Spruce under Comparisons i. It differs from 

 t lie White- and the Blue Spruce by its hair>' twigs and y el lo'U'ish -green 

 feliage and from the Norway Spruce by its shorter cones. 



DISTRIBITIOX — Cool, rich woods, well-drained valleys, slopes of 

 mountains nijt infrei.juently extending down to the borders of swamps. 

 Prince ELlward Island and Nuva Scotia alung the valley uf the St. 

 Lawrence; s<:>uth along the AUeghanies tt.' Georgia, ascending to an alti- 

 tude of 4. ."00 feet in the Adirundacks. and 4.000-5.000 feet in West 

 "V'irginia: w^st through the northern tier of states to Minnesota. 



IX NEW EX(jLAXI> — Maine — throughout; jnost common towards the 

 coast and in the extreme niirth. thus fi'rming a belt around the 

 central area, whei'e it is often quite wanting except on cool or elevated 

 slopes: New Hampshire — throughout; the must abundant conifer of upper 

 Coos, the White Mountain region T^Tiere it climbs to the alpine area, 

 and the higher parts of the Connecticut-Merrimac watershed; Vermont 

 • — throughout ; the c.'mmon S])ruce of the Green mountains, often in 

 dense groves on rocky slopes with thin soil; Massachusetts — common in 

 the mountainous regions of Berkshire county and im uplands in the 

 nijrthern sections, occasional southward ; Rhode Island — not reported. 



IN CONNECTICUT — Rare. Litchfield. Canaan, Salisbury. 



M'OOD — Light, soft, close-grained, not stri^ng, pale, slightly tinged 

 with red, with paler sapwood generally about 2 inches thick; largely 

 manufactured into lumber in the northeastern states and used for the 

 flooring and construction of houses, for the sounding-boards of musical 

 instruments and in the manufacture of paper pulp. 



