HOUSE AND GARDEN 
December, 
1909 
221 
White Fir Nordmann’s Fir Balsam Fir Cilician Fir White Spruce Red Spruce 
toJ’our conditions, even vol¬ 
unteering seedlings from its 
own growth in many places. 
Its popularity is due to its 
rapid growth and attractive 
graceful habit. It is one of 
the best fir trees for close 
planting and is used a great 
deal for shelters and wind¬ 
breaks as well as in hedges. 
It rarely attains a height 
of over fifty feet in this 
country. Possessing that 
characteristic prevalent in so 
many of the spruces, it loses 
its beauty after about thirty 
years of growth, becoming 
thin and ragged. The reddish- 
brown older bark and the 
brown cones about six inches 
long, the dark shining needles 
about three-fourths of an 
inch long, and the purple flowers, identify the Norway spruce. 
Engelmann’s and the White spruce both deliver a strong 
aromatic odor when bruised. The former, a native of our Western 
States and the Cascade mountains, is valued highly here in the 
East as a specimen tree and for group planting, being of very 
vigorous growth and enduring 
the cold better than any other 
spruce. The White is also a 
successful ornamental tree, 
and, being a native of our 
Eastern States, is familiar to 
all forest lovers. 
The White spruce is 
characterized by the curved 
needles with pointed hardened 
tips of a bluish-green color 
and growing to a length of 
three-fourths of an inch; by 
the reddish or yellowish 
flowers, and by the shining 
light-brown cones, about two 
inches in length. Engelmann’s 
has practically the same 
characteristics but can be 
identified from the White by 
its purple flowers, by the 
longer and more flexible 
needles, by the pale yellowish bark, as contrasted with the 
brownish-gray bark of the White, and by the greater compact¬ 
ness of form. 
Two indispensable natives are our Black and Red spruces. 
(■Continued on page x) 
It is from these fir swamps that most of our Christmas trees are 
harvested. The Balsam Fir and the Red and Black 
Spruces are the favorites for Christmas trees 
FIR AND SPRUCE CHARACTERISTICS 
SPRUCES 
Form. Tall and pyramidal. 
Wood. Soft and pale. 
Bark. Thin and scaly. 
Leaves or Growing from all sides and 
Needles.... arranged in spirals on 
the branch—four-angled 
in shape, connected by a 
short stalk to a promi¬ 
nent cushion on the 
branchfthis cushion gives 
the branch a rough 
ridged appearance, made 
more so by the short 
stalks left behind after 
the leaves have fallen). 
Flowers. Of two kinds: those finally 
becoming the cones, and 
the pollen-bearing flow¬ 
ers, and growing from 
the axils of the leaves and 
from the ends of the 
branches. 
Cones. Hanging cones growing 
above the upper half of 
the tree. 
TRUE FIRS 
Tall and pyramidal. 
Pale and brittle. 
Smooth, pale and thin on 
young trees, thick and 
furrowed in old age. 
Usually flattened above— 
in some cases arranged in 
two ranks along the sides 
of the branch; in others 
growing from all sides— 
they grow directly out 
from the branch itself 
and on falling expose a 
leaf scar flush with the 
bark, which is usually 
quite smooth and clear. 
Two kinds as in the 
spruce, and growing from 
the axils of the leaves. 
Erect cones growing on 
the upper side of the 
branches—usually clus¬ 
tered on the upper half 
of the tree. 
The Norway Spruce is easily the most 
popular spruce in cultivation 
A Douglas Spruce combines flat-topped fir 
leaves with the pendulous spruce cones 
