BLACK OR DOUBLE SPRUCE. 
103 
is found in the same countries on the declivities of mountains, where the 
soil is stony, dry, and covered only with a thin bed of moss ; but as this 
soil is less favorable, its growth is less luxuriant and its stature less com- 
manding. The same observation is applicable to other tracts, designated 
by the name of poor black lands , which are meager spots covered with the 
Black Spruce. In these situations it has shorter, thicker leaves, of a still 
darker color, with cones only half as large, but similar in form, and ripé 
at the same period. 
I shall frequently have occasion to observe, that the inhabitants of the 
country, and mechanics who work in wood, take notice only of certain 
striking appearances in forest trees, such as the quality of the wood, its 
color and that of the bark ; and that, from ignorance of botanical charac- 
ters, they give different names, to thè same tree, according to certain varia- 
tions in these respects arising from local circumstances. To this cause 
must be attributed the popular distinction of Black and Red Spruce. Sir 
A. B. Lambert, misled by the remarkable size of the cones of the last 
variety which have been sent to England, and by incorrect information, 
determined, with some hesitation, to describe and figure it under the name 
of Abies rubra: he represents it as inferior in every réspect to the Black 
Spruce, though, according to my own observations in the country where it 
grows, it unites in the highest degree all the good qualities which charac- 
terize the species. Samples of the heart would probably have confirmed 
his opinion that they are distinct species ; for that of the Black Spruce is 
white, and that of the other variety reddish-. But I repeat, that this dif- 
ference in the wood of trees of the same species is produced only by the 
influence of soil. 
The distinguishing properties of the Black Spruce are strength, lightness 
and elasticity. Josselyn, in his History of Hew England, published in 
London in 1672, informs us that it was considered at that period as fur- 
nishing the best yards and topmasts in the world. Besides possessing 
these qualities, as we have already observed, in a higher degree, the Red 
Spruce is superior in size to the other variety, which grows in a poorer 
soil, and is less supple and more liable to be crooked. 
In the dock-yards of the United States, the spars are usually of Black 
Spruce from the District of Maine, and for the same purpose it is exported 
in great quantities from Maine, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia to the 
West Indies and to Liverpool. 
Oddy says that in England it is preferred to the Norway Pine, Abies 
picea, but that it does not afford pieces of sufficient dimensions for the 
yards of men-of-war, which are made of the Norway Pine or of the White 
Pine. 
The knees of vessels are frequently of Black Spruce, in the District of 
Maine, and sometimes at Boston, where the Oak is becoming rare. When 
