LXXVII. CONI’FERE: A‘BIES. 1031 
that of any other spruce; the leaves are also less numerous, longer, more 
pointed, at a more open angle with the branches, and of a pale bluish green. 
The male catkins are pendulous, on long footstalks, and of a brownish yellow. 
The female catkins are ovate and pendulous.. When ripe, the cones are small, 
of a lengthened oval in shape, and a light brown colour; the scales are loose 
and thin, round or bluntly pointed, with entire edges. The seeds are minute,” 
with a very small wing, and ripen a month earlier than those of the black 
spruce. When the tree is agitated with the wind, or when the cones are 
gently struck with a stick, the seeds drop out, and fall slowly to the ground 
with a tremulous fluttering motion, resembling a cloud of small pale brown 
moths. The rate of growth, in the climate of London, in sandy soil some- 
what moist, is from 12ft. to 15 ft.in 10 years. In 30 years, the tree will 
attain the height of from 30 ft. to 40 ft.; but in dry soils it seldom reaches 
either this age or height : indeed, all the American spruces may be considered, 
in England, as short-lived trees. 
25. da. ni'cra Por, The black Spruce Fir. 
Identification. Poir. Dict. Encyc., oe 520.3; Michx. N. Amer. Syl., 3. p. 176. 
Synonymes. Pinus nigra Att. Hort. Kew. 3. p.370.; P. mariana Fhr. Beyt. 3. p. 23.; A‘bies ma- 
riana /Vangh. Beyt. p. 75. ; double Spruce ; noire Epinette, Epinette 4 la Biére, *n Canada. 
Engravings. Lamb. Pin., ed. 2., 1. t. 37. ; Michx. N. Amer. Syl., 3. t. 147.; the plate of this tree 
in Arb. Brit., Ist. edit., vol. viii. ; and our fig. 1929. 
Spec. Char., §c. Leaves solitary, regularly disposed all round the branches ; 
erect, very short, somewhat quadrangular. Cones dvate, pendulous ; scales 
somewhat undulated ; the apex of the scale crenulated or divided. (Michz.) 
Cones from 12 in. to 13 in. long, and from £in, to nearly lin. broad. Seed 
rather larger than that of A. alba, but the wing smaller. Leaves from 3 in. 
to Sin. long. A large tree. Canada to Carolina, throughout the tracts of 
high mountains. Height 60 ft. to 70ft. Introduced in 1700. Flowering 
in May or June, and ripening its cones in the following April. 
Varieties. The kind generally designated as A. rubra (P. rubra Lamb.) is as- 
serted by Michaux to be only a variety, or rather variation, of 4. nigra, 
produced by the influence of the soil on the wood, but we have treated it 
as a subspecies, as it is tolerably distinct, and, at present, not common. 
The branches spread more in a horizontal than in a drooping direction, like 
those of the Norway spruce ; 
and, consequently, the black 
spruce (notwithstanding the 
darkness of its foliage) has » 
not the gloomy aspect. of the 
European tree. The bark is 
smooth and blackish. The 
leaves are of a dark sombre 
green; they are short, being 
scarcely 4in. long, thickly set, 
stiff, and are attached singly 
to the branches, which they 
cover all round. The male 
catkins are cylindrical, erect, 
and on peduncles ; about 1 in. 
long ; yellowish, with red- 
tipped anthers. The female 
catkins are oval, and at first 
erect, but soon become pen- 1929. A. nigra. 
dulous; they are purplish, and almost black, when young ; but become, 
when ripe, of a dusky reddish brown. When full-grown, they are about 
Ii in. long, and 2 in, in diameter at the middle. The scales are blunt, 
rounded, very thin, and, when ripe, rugged and torn on the margin, and some- 
times half through the scale. The seeds are small, scarcely more than a line 
3u 4 
