62 



The Spruces 



Fig. 48. — Weeping Spruce, 

 from its forest home to gardens close by, it has refused to thrive. 



the second winter when the scales 

 are strongly reflexed. The bracts 

 are small and inconspicuous. 

 The dark brown seed is rounded 

 at the base, 3 mm. long, one 

 fourth the length of the broad 

 roimded wing. 



The wood is soft, close- 

 grained, and compact, light 

 brown and shining and the 

 heaviest of the spruces, its spe- 

 cific gravity being about 0.51; 

 its rarity and inaccessibility have 

 prevented any economical appli- 

 cation. 



The rarest and probably 

 most beautiful of the American 

 spruces, with its long, gracefully 

 weeping branches, has so far re- 

 sisted all known attempts toward 

 its cultivation, and, except for 

 small specimens transplanted 



8. TIDELAND SPRUCE — Picea sitchensis (Bongard) Carrifere 

 Pinus sitchensis Bongard 



This, the tallest of our spruces, is also called Sitka spruce, Menzies' spruce, 

 Western spruce, and Great tideland spruce. It occurs in swampy or moist land 

 from Kadiak Island, Alaska, southward to Mendocino county, Cahfomia, and is 

 essenj;ially a seaboard tree, but ascends the coastal mountains to an altitude of 

 1000 meters where it is greatly reduced in stature; in the north it is a low shrub. 

 Its maximum height of 90 meters with a trunk diameter of 4.5 meters is attained 

 in the great forests of the rich river valleys of Oregon and Washington. 



Its trunk is much enlarged and buttressed at the base. The branches of un- 

 crowded old trees are nearly horizontal, and often very long; on young trees they 

 are more upright and closely set, forming an open cone %vith a narrow top. In 

 the denser forests the trunks are bare for over half their length. The bark is i 

 to 2 cm. thick and broken into large, thin, irregular, rounded loose scales of a 

 dark reddish color; on yoimg trees the bark is usually brighter red. The stout, 

 stiff twigs are smooth, light green, becoming yellowish and finally dark brown with 

 age. The winter buds are conic or ovoid, about i cm. long, sharp-pointed, their 

 ovate scales brown and shining. The leaves, which radiate outwardly in all direc- 



