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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