THE SPRUCE FIR. 



ABIES EXCELSA. 



The Spruce Fir was known to the ancients by 

 the name of Picea. Pliny describes it as de- 

 lighting in a lofty and cold situation. He com- 

 pares its form to that of the Larch, with moderately 

 long branches, or arms spreading from the main 

 trunk close to the root ; but the leaves, he says, 

 are scattered, short, rigid, and prickly, and abound 

 in resin. Being a gloomy tree, its branches were 

 used to attach to doors as a sign of a funeral about 

 to take place.* Under the influence of the sun, it 

 sometimes exudes drops of resin. The timber is used 

 for beams, laths, &c. Linnaeus, by a strange over- 

 sight, considered the Picea of the ancients iden- 

 tical with our Silver Fir, and the Abies of Pliny 

 and other Latin writers he supposed to be our 

 Spruce Fir : but there can be no doubt that he 

 was here in error, the description quoted above 

 being much more applicable to the tree now under 

 consideration. 



The Spruce, or Norway Spruce Fir, is a native 

 of the mountainous parts of Europe and Asia, 

 preferring a moist soil and cold climate. It is 

 most frequent in the north, but is found at a 



* In Sweden and Norway at the present day, when a funeral is 

 about to take place, the road into the churchyard and to the grave is 

 strewn with these green sprigs, the gathering and selling of which 

 is a sort of trade for poor old people about the towns. 



