ABIES NIGRA AND VARIETIES. % 



As in all the American Spruces, the cones are very small, rarely 

 exceeding 1J inch in length; when first formed they are blackish- 

 purple, and, till their maturity, are of a deeper duller colour than 

 those of any other Spruce Fir. 



Habitat.— North America, from the Alleghany mountains north- 

 wards as far as the 65th parallel, and from the Atlantic Ocean 

 westwards -to Wisconsin. 



Introduced into England about the year 1700 by Bishop Compton. 



The Black Spruce holds relatively the same position, in an economic 

 sense, among the Coniferous trees of north-east America, as the 

 Norway Spruce does among those of Europe. Its timber is of 

 excellent quality, light, strong, and elastic; durable when protected, 

 but decaying rapidly when exposed to the weather. It is more used 

 m the British Dominion and the adjoining portions of the United 

 States than that of any other Coniferous tree; it is also exported 

 to Great Britain in large quantities, chiefly to the ports of Liverpool 

 and Glasgow. The consumption of Black Spruce timber is known 

 to be enormous, many thousands of acres being cleared annually to 

 supply the demand. 



The Canadian French call the Black Spruce "Epinette a la Biere," 

 because the twigs of the tree used to be boiled in water with other 

 substances such as sugar, molasses, &c, and the liquor being casked 

 and fermented, received the name of Spruce Beer. 



The ornamental qualities of Abies nigra are not of a very high order, 

 although it possesses some very distinctive characters, but these are only 

 well developed in this country when the trees are growing in retentive 

 loamy soils and moist places, freely exposed on all sides. In the 

 New England States and adjoining provinces of the British Dominion, 

 where the Black Spruce is most abundant, it is found to "delight 

 in cold hilly and mountain regions, attaining its largest size in those 

 moderate elevations, ridges, or slopes, where the soil has a ready 

 drainage, and at the same time retains considerable moisture by reason 

 of its mossy shaded surface and large percentage of dark vegetable 

 mould. It also grows freely in low swampy lands and about 

 sphagnous marshes, but in such localities it is inferior in size and 

 quality." 



" The Black Spruce is much disposed to be variable. In open 

 sphagnous marshes, a form occurs so marked in its appearance that 

 in some localities it has received the name of the Bastard Spruce. 

 The branches of this variety are generally slender, the internodes 

 short, and the leaves pale. The tree has a feeble, starved, and sickly 

 aspect, and does not attain a large size. Another form occurs in the 

 Adirondack region; the foliage has a silvery or glaucous hue, on 



