The White Spruce —Picea Canadensis. Picea alba 
White Spruce is one of the most 
magnificent evergreens native to 
North America. In the open it is a beauti¬ 
ful, symmetrical tree, thickly clothed with 
branches with a tufted appearance that 
distinguishes it from the Norway Spruce. 
Close at hand the branches are easily 
separated from those of the Red Spruce 
and the Black Spruce by the fact that, 
while the bark of the young twigs of the 
two latter species is both rather thickly 
covered with hairs, the bark of the young 
twigs of the White Spruce is glabrous. 
It may often be distinguished by the fact 
that the leaves have a rather unpleasant 
odor, as well as by their whitish color which 
gives the tree its common name. 
This is a northern species, ranging from 
Newfoundland to Alaska and extending 
southward to the northern tier of states 
and British Columbia. Throughout this 
vast range it grows with the other Spruces 
and by many lumbermen is commonly not 
distinguished from them. It is especially 
abundant along the coast of Maine. In 
more northern regions the trees sometimes 
reach a height of a hundred and fifty feet 
and a trunk diameter of four feet, but 
commonly in more southern localities it is 
but sixty feet high with a trunk diameter 
of two feet. The bark of the latest sea¬ 
son’s shoots is generally reddish brown, 
while that of older branches is much 
darker. The leaves are about four-fifths 
of an inch long with sharply pointed tips, 
and stripes of white dots on each of the four 
sides. The cones are borne on the tips of 
the smaller twigs and when fully developed 
are of an average length of one and a 
half inches. The margins of the scales 
are thin and rounded, the middle of the 
margin being commonly truncate and entire. 
The small seeds with the wing attached 
are about a quarter of an inch long. The 
cones drop oft after the seeds are shed and 
may be found beneath the tree at any sea¬ 
son of the vear. 
j 
In Canada and the extreme Northern 
States this is one of the most desirable ever¬ 
greens for ornamental planting, but further 
south it is not adapted to the climate and 
becomes unsightly as it grows older. 
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