Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume XV.djvu/303

 SPRUCE 291 es northward to 65, it being partial to cold, swampy localities among the mountains. Its straight, tapering trunk, often 75 ft. high, bears a handsome conical head, if it has room to de- velop ; but in a crowded forest the trunks are branchless, save a small tuft at the summit. The very short leaves, rarely more than half an inch long, are erect, stiff, and very dark green ; the cones are 1 to 1-J- in. long, dark purple when young, but when ripe (in November) pale brown ; the seeds are shed the following spring, but the cones remain several years ; the scales of the cones are uneven on the margin, and often notched or toothed. The wood is very strong, light, and durable, and is much used in ship building, not only for masts and spars, but in the hull, where it outlasts oak ; it is much used for the sides of ladders, for the smaller tim- bers in house building, and for shingles. The recent shoots of this species are used in this country for making domestic beer. The tree is sometimes planted for ornament, and young specimens are very regular in form ; but they get ragged as they grow older. The color of the foliage is rather sombre, and the so- called red spruce is merely a form of this with larger and redder cones and the wood tinged with red. The white or single spruce (A. alba) has a range similar to the preceding, and ex- tends even further north than that ; Richard- son found it within 20 m. of the Arctic sea. The leaves are somewhat longer than those of the black spruce, and of a pale glaucous green ; though the leaves are attached equally on all sides of the shoots, yet on the horizontal branches they curve upward in such a manner as to appear two-ranked ; the cones, about 2 in. long, fall the first winter, and their scales have a firm, even edge. The wood of this is also valuable, some considering it not inferior to that of black spruce, and superior to it for spars ; the long roots are remarkably tough, and the Indians prepare from them thongs or threads with which to sew their birch- bark canoes. The white spruce, when young, is of a regular conical shape, very compact, and its pale but lively green color makes a most effective contrast when it is planted near evergreens with darker foliage. In the for- ests of northern Michigan and Wisconsin, the lumbermen distinguish a blue spruce, which has more bluish leaves, while its cones are more like those of the black spruce. Several species are peculiar to the Rocky mountains and the Pacific coast ; notable among these is Menzies's spruce (A. Menziesii), discovered by Douglas in northern California ; it is abundant in Alaska, and extends eastward to the Rocky mountains, where it is known as balsam ; it is a subalpine species, rarely found at a less ele- vation than 7,000 ft., and prefers low marshy soils or the margins of streams. It reaches 100 ft., but the average height is 60 or 70 ft. ; it has a straight trunk and a regular pyramidal outline ; the leaves are broader than in east- ern species, silvery whitish beneath, very stiff, and almost spine-like ; the cylindrical cones are about 3 in. long, their pale and thin scales irregular on the margin. The wood is very compact, but rather coarse-grained and resin- ous, and the trunks taper too rapidly to saw up to advantage. As an ornamental tree it is likely to become popular; it is quite hardy near Boston and in other northern localities ; its growth in rich moist soils is very rapid. Engelmann's spruce (A. Engelmanni), 80 to 100 ft. high, was first discovered by Dr. Parry in the Rocky mountains, where it occurs from New Mexico to the head waters of the Colum- bia and Missouri, forming almost the entire Norway Spruce (Abies excelsa). forest growth of some of the mountain slopes, and is most luxuriant at the altitude of 9,000 to 10,000 ft.; much higher than this it be- comes dwarfed ; it resembles the eastern black spruce. Patton's spruce (A. Pattoniana) is a fine species found in the mountains of upper California and northward, and is described as reaching the height of 150 ft. and over. Of the exotic spruces none is so well known as the Norway (A. excelsa which is indeed the pop- ular evergreen of this country ; it is indigenous throughout northern Europe and Asia, in Rus- sia and Siberia extending beyond the arctic circle, especially abundant in Norway, Sweden,