r16 PICEZ, OR SPRUCE TREES 
The Picea Rubra’s leaves on closer investigation are 
more densely crowded ; they are also very remarkably 
incurved, while those of the Common Spruce point 
in a very distinctly upward attitude. Here is a very 
telling difference, but a still more telling one is the 
dense pubescence on the P. Rubra branches, white 
on the young shoots and brown on the older branch- 
lets. The P. Excelsa here and there shows evidence 
of a few scattered downy tufts on the young stems, 
and this wears off considerably on older branchlets. 
But these scattered tufts of minute pubescence 
present a very marked difference of appearance from 
the dense down of thorough-going pubescent speci- 
mens. Here is an unmistakable difference and a 
lesson easily learnt. The cones differ entirely, as the 
table, p. 281, shows, but cones are not very forth- 
coming; if they were, many identifying difficulties 
would vanish. 
As the P. Rubra is a very rare tree, and only a few 
can have seen its cones growing, I make no apology 
for volunteering this home experience of them. I 
have before me a branch taken from the top of a 
specimen grown here, and planted about. 1845 (vide 
Elwes and Henry, vol. vi. p. 1379), and which is now 
nearly 80 ft. high. It tapers to a point and is about 
a foot broad in its widest part. In some 18 inches 
length of this little arrangement of branch and 
branchlets there are collected together some eighty 
cones, sessile in character, and as pendulous in 
position as they can contrive to be in their over- 
crowded dwelling sphere. If you wish further to 
dissociate these two trees Rubra and Excelsa, the 
buds will help you. If you look at the buds of the 
Rubra, and also of the P. Nigra, which in common 
shares this peculiar characteristic, it will be seen that 
their terminal buds are enveloped, for more than 
from head to foot, with long, narrow-pointed, -hairy 
