VIOLINS AND SPRUCE TREES ry 
leaf-scale coverings, while the P. Excelsa has, com- 
‘paratively speaking, only a commonplace-looking 
hard dry bud, destitute of any such singular trappings. 
To take two more nearly allied instances and 
dissociate them, the P. Nigra and the P. Alba have 
bluish glaucous-coloured leaves, quite unlike the more 
grass-green colour of the P. Rubra, or for the matter 
of that the P. Excelsa. But the P.. Alba is quite 
‘devoid of any pubescence, and that is where it shows 
its marked independence of character in this rather 
perplexing trio of the Spruces—Red, Black, and White. 
‘Finally, if you aspire to add to the sum of your 
accomplishments an intimacy with the different 
Piceas, we would strongly recommend a close ob- 
servance of the presence or absence of pubescence 
on their branches, as well also the colour shape and 
direction of their leaves, the margins of their scales 
of their cones, whether entire, delicately frayed on 
the fringe, or ruthlessly jagged in appearance. All 
these points become convincing evidences of the 
individuality of the tree in question. 
VIOLINS AND SPRUCE TREES 
That small, sweet thing, 
Devised in love and fashioned cunningly 
Of wood and strings. 
Before quitting the subject of the Common Spruce 
we should like to converse on one little sidelight of 
its wood value. In face of the fact that it has 
been so disregarded by. writers on trees, we feel no 
occasion to offer apology for a brief reference thereto. 
You do not often hap upon a student of wood values 
and a‘devotional lover of viols combined in one and 
the same personality. And so it is that one little 
episode in the life-history of the Spruce tree has gone 
by, for the most part, unheeded by tree historians, 
and in undeserved escape of notice from the musical 
