Handbook of Trees of the JSTorthekn States and Canada. 



25 



This handsome Spruce considerably re- 

 sembles the Balsam Fir in habit of developing 

 when isolated a symmetrical narrow pyramidal 

 head of dense foliage, and then usually does 

 attain a greater height east of the Rocky 

 Mountains than 50 or 60 ft. When crowded 

 in forests it attains a much greater height, 

 sometimes even 150 ft., with straight trunk 

 3-4 ft. in diameter. Its bark is reddish brown, 

 rough with irregular scales and its foliage has 

 a marked and characteristic rank odor. In 

 company with the Aspen, Canoe Birch, Balsam, 

 Black Spruce, etc., it beautifies the banks of 

 streams and lake shores of the far north, 

 scarcely finding even in the climate of our 

 northernmost states a temperature .cold 

 enough for its best development. 



The physical properties and uses of the wood 

 of the White Spruce are quite the same as 

 those of the Red Spruce. A cubic foot when 

 thoroughly seasoned weighs 25,25 lbs. 2 



Leaves Mi-1 in. lon^. incurved and crowded on 

 the top of the branchlets, 4-sided with stomata on 

 each side, glaucous green and with sharp rigid 

 tips ; branchlets glaucous. Flowers appear in 

 May, oblong-cylindrical : staminate reddish yel- 

 low : pistillate greenish red with broad rounded 

 entire scales and denticulate bracts. Cones 

 nodding, slender, oblong-cylindrical, nearly sessile. 

 about 2 in. long, mostly falling in autumn : obtuse 

 at apex and with very thin nearly orbicular scales 

 truncate or sometimes retuse and entire at apex ; 

 seeds about % in. long with large wing oblique at 

 apex. 



1. Syn. Pica alba Link. »:■ 



2. A. W., IV, 100. 



