Handbook of the Trees of New England | Page 9

quite wanting except on cool or elevated slopes; New Hampshire,--throughout; the most abundant conifer of upper Coos, the White mountain region where it climbs to the alpine area, and the higher parts of the Connecticut-Merrimac watershed; Vermont,--throughout; the common spruce of the Green mountains, often in dense groves on rocky slopes with thin soil; Massachusetts,--common in the mountainous regions of Berkshire county and on uplands in the northern sections, occasional southward; Rhode Island and Connecticut,--not reported.
South along the Alleghanies to Georgia, ascending to an altitude of 4500 feet in the Adirondacks, and 4000-5000 feet in West Virginia; west through the northern tier of states to Minnesota.
=Habit.=--A hardy tree, 40-75 feet high; trunk 1-2-1/2 feet in diameter, straight, tapering very slowly; branches longer than those of the black spruce, irregularly whorled or scattered, the lower often declined, sometimes resting on the ground, the upper rising toward the light, forming while the tree is young a rather regular, narrow, conical head, which in old age and in bleak mountain regions becomes, by the loss of branches, less symmetrical but more picturesque; foliage dark yellowish-green.
=Bark.=--Bark of trunk smoothish and mottled on young trees, at length separating into small, thin, flat, reddish scales; in old trees striate with shallow sinuses, separating into ashen-white plates, often partially detached; spray reddish or yellowish white in autumn with minute, erect, pale rusty pubescence.
=Winter Buds and Leaves.=--Buds scaly, conical, brownish, 1/3 inch long. Leaves solitary, at first closely appressed around the young shoots, ultimately pointing outward, those on the underside often twisting upward, giving a brush-like appearance to the twig, 1/2-3/4 inch long, straight or curved (curvature more marked than in P. nigra), needle-shaped, dark yellowish-green, 4-angled; apex blunt or more or less pointed, often mucronate; base blunt; sessile on persistent leaf-cushions.
=Inflorescence.=--May. Sterile flowers terminal or axillary on wood of the preceding year, 1/2-3/4 inch long, cylindrical; anthers pinkish-red: fertile flowers lateral along previous season's shoots, erect; scales madder-purple, spirally imbricated, broader than long, margin entire or slightly erose.
=Fruit.=--Cones; single or clustered, lateral along the previous season's shoots, recurved, mostly pointing downward at various angles, on short stalks, falling the first autumn but sometimes persistent a year longer, 1-2 inches long (usually larger than those of P. nigra), reddish-brown, mostly ovate; scales thin, stiff, rounded; margin entire or slightly irregular.
=Horticultural Value.=--Hardy throughout New England; adapts itself to a great variety of soils and lives to a great age. Its narrow-based conical form, dense foliage, and yellow green coloring form an effective contrast with most other evergreens. It grows, however, slowly, is subject to the loss of its lower branches and to disfigurement by insects. Seldom offered in nurseries.
[Illustration: PLATE VII.--Picea rubra.]
1. Branch with sterile flowers. 2. Stamen, front view. 3. Stamen, side view. 4. Branch with fertile flowers. 5. Cover-scale and ovuliferous scale, outer side. 6. Ovuliferous scale with ovules, inner side. 7. Fruiting branch with cones of two seasons. 8. Seed. 9. Leaf. 10. Cross-sections of leaves.
=Picea alba, Link.=
Picea Canadensis, B. S. P.
WHITE SPRUCE. CAT SPRUCE.[1] SKUNK SPRUCE.[2] LABRADOR SPRUCE.
=Habitat and Range.=--Low, damp, but not wet woods; dry, sandy soils, high rocky slopes and exposed hilltops, often in scanty soil.
[Footnote 1, 2: So called from the peculiarly unpleasant odor of the crushed foliage and young shoots,--a characteristic which readily distinguishes it from the P. nigra and P. rubra.]
Newfoundland and Nova Scotia, through the provinces of Quebec and Ontario to Manitoba and British Columbia, northward beyond all other trees, within 20 miles of the Arctic sea.
Maine,--frequent in sandy soils, often more common than P. rubra, as far south as the shores of Casco bay; New Hampshire,--abundant around the shores of the Connecticut river, disappearing southward at Fifteen-Mile falls; Vermont,--restricted mainly to the northern sections, more common in the northeast; Massachusetts,--occasional in the mountainous regions of Berkshire county; a few trees in Hancock (A. K. Harrington); as far south as Amherst (J. E. Humphrey) and Northampton (Mrs. Emily H. Terry), probably about the southern limit of the species; Rhode Island and Connecticut,--not reported.
West through the northern sections of the northern tier of states to the Rocky mountains.
=Habit.=--A handsome tree, 40-75 feet high, with a diameter of 1-2 feet at the ground, the trunk tapering slowly, throwing out numerous scattered or irregularly whorled, gently ascending or nearly horizontal branches, forming a symmetrical, rather broad conical head, with numerous branchlets and bluish-green glaucous foliage spread in dense planes; gum bitter.
=Bark.=--Bark of trunk pale reddish-brown or light gray, on very old trees ash-white; not as flaky as the bark of the red spruce, the scales smaller and more closely appressed; young trees and small branches much smoother, pale reddish-brown or mottled brown and gray, resembling the fir balsam; branchlets glabrous; shoots from which the leaves have fallen marked by the scaly, persistent leaf-cushions; new shoots pale fawn-color at first, turning darker the