126 



Report of the Forest Commission. 



these trees at flowering time the following characters seem to me 

 to be the most available ones for distinguishing them. 



White Spruce. 

 Young branchlets glabrous Leaves 

 six to eight lines long. Cones oblong 

 or cylindrical, deciduous before next 

 flowering time. Sterile aments pale, 

 supported on slender whitish pedicels 

 exserted from the basal cup of scales. 

 Fertile aments eight to ten lines long. 

 Young leaves visible at flowering time. 



Black Spruce. 

 Young branchlets pubescent. Leaves 

 four to seven lines long. Cones ovate 

 or oblong, still on the tree at next 

 flowering time. Sterile aments tinged 

 with red, sessile in the basal cup of 

 scales. Fertile aments five to six lines 

 long. Young leaves not yet visible at 

 flowering time. 



"These trees are in flower at the same time in the same locality. 

 They were in bloom the past season in the vicinity of Elizabeth- 

 town the last week in May." 



The white spruce of the Adirondacks seems to be an inferior 

 type of its kind. Prof. Charles S. Sargent, in his " Eeport on the 

 Forests of North America," tenth United States census, in de_ 

 scribing this species says : 



"A tree 15 to 50 meters in height, with a trunk 0.60 to 90 

 meter in diameter ; low, rather wet soil, borders of ponds and 

 swamps; most common north of the boundary of the United 

 States, and reaching its greatest development along the streams 

 and lakes of the Flathead region of northern Montana, at an ele- 

 vation of 2,500 to 3,500 feet; the most important timber tree of 

 the American subarctic forests north of the sixtieth degree of 

 latitude, here more generally multiplied and of larger size than 

 the allied P. Nigra with which it is associated." 



There is also a tree known as the red spruce which is occasion- 

 ally found in the Adirondacks, but more plentifully in Canada. 

 At one time this tree was described as a distinct species {Abies 

 rubra), but latterly it is held to be a variety of the black spruce. 

 It has larger cones, and a reddish, softer wood, the latter feature 

 being attributed by Michaux to some influence of the soil. 



Prof. N. L. Britton, of the Department of Botany, Columbia 

 College, in an article on " New or Noteworthy North American 

 Phanerogams "* says : 



" I have lately been much interested in the spruces, and have 

 observed them closely on the Blue Kidge in southwestern Vir- 



finia, where I became familiar with two species, one of which 

 supposed to be the white spruce, Picea Canadensis. The same 

 two species occur on the slopes of Mounts Marcy and Mclntyre, 

 in the Adirondacks, but neither of them is P. Canadensis, which 

 species I did not see. It is reported from northern New York, 

 but I did not encounter it. 



* Bulletin of the Torrey Botanical Club, Vol. 21, No. 1, Jan., 1894. 



