CONSPECTUS OF THE NORTH AMERICAN SPECIES.
Leaves 4-sided, with stomata on the 4 sides. Cone-scales rounded at apex. Cone-scales stiff and rigid at maturity; branchlets pubescent. Cones ovoid on strongly incurved stalks, persistent for many years, their scales erose or dentate; leaves blue-green.1. [P. mariana] (A, B, F). Cones ovoid-oblong, early deciduous, their scales entire or denticulate; leaves dark yellow-green.2. [P. rubra] (A). Cone-scales soft and flexible at maturity; branchlets glabrous; cones oblong-cylindric, slender, their scales entire; leaves blue-green.3. [P. glauca] (A, B, F). Cone-scales truncate or acute at apex, oblong or rhombic; leaves blue-green. Cones oblong-cylindric or ellipsoidal; branchlets pubescent; leaves soft and flexible.4. [P. Engelmannii] (F, B, G). Cones oblong-cylindric; branchlets glabrous; leaves rigid, spinescent.5. [P. pungens] (F). Leaves flattened, usually with stomata only on the upper surface; cone-scales rounded. Cone-scales ovate, entire; branchlets pubescent; cones ellipsoidal, leaves obtuse.6. [P. Breweriana] (G). Cone-scales elliptic, denticulate above the middle; branchlets glabrous; cones oblong-cylindric, leaves acute or acuminate, with stomata occasionally on the lower surface.7. [P. sitchensis] (B, G).
1. [Picea mariana] B. S. P. Black Spruce.
Leaves slightly incurved above the middle, abruptly contracted at apex into short callous tips, pale blue-green and glaucous at maturity, ¼′—¾′ long, hoary on the upper surface from the broad bands of stomata, and lustrous and slightly stomatiferous on the lower surface. Flowers: male subglobose, with dark red anthers; female oblong-cylindric, with obovate purple scales rounded above, and oblong purple glaucous bracts rounded and denticulate at apex. Fruit ovoid, pointed, gradually narrowed at the base into short strongly incurved stalks, ½′—1½′ long, with rigid puberulous scales rounded or rarely somewhat pointed at apex and more or less erose on the notched pale margins, turning as they ripen dull gray-brown and becoming as the scales gradually open and slowly discharge their seeds almost globose; sometimes remaining on the branches for twenty or thirty years, the oldest close to the base of the branches near the trunk; seeds oblong, narrowed to the acute base, about ⅛′ long, very dark brown, with delicate pale brown wings broadest above the middle, very oblique at the apex, about ½′ long, ⅛′ wide.
A tree, usually 20°—30° and occasionally 100° high, with a trunk 6′—12′ and rarely 3° in diameter, and comparatively short branches generally pendulous with upward curves, forming an open irregular crown, light green branchlets coated with pale pubescence, soon beginning to grow darker, and during their first winter light cinnamon-brown and covered with short rusty pubescence, their thin brown bark gradually becoming glabrous and beginning to break into small thin scales during their second year; at the extreme north sometimes cone-bearing when only 2°—3° high. Winter-buds ovoid, acute, light reddish brown, puberulous, about ⅛′ long. Bark ¼′—½′ thick and broken on the surface into thin rather closely appressed gray-brown scales. Wood light, soft, not strong, pale yellow-white, with thin sapwood; probably rarely used outside of Manitoba and Saskatchewan, except in the manufacture of paper pulp. Spruce-gum, the resinous exudations of the Spruce-trees of northeastern America, is gathered in considerable quantities principally in northern New England and Canada, and is used as a masticatory. Spruce-beer is made by boiling the branches of the Black and Red Spruces.
Distribution. At the north on well-drained bottom-lands and the slopes of barren stony hills, and southward in sphagnum-covered bogs, swamps, and on their borders, from Labrador to the valley of the Mackenzie River in about latitude 65° north, and, crossing the Rocky Mountains, through the interior of Alaska to the valley of White River; southward through Newfoundland, the maritime provinces, eastern Canada and the northeastern United States to central Pennsylvania, and along the Alleghany Mountains to northern Virginia; and from the eastern foothills of the Rocky Mountains in Alberta, through northern Saskatchewan and northern Manitoba, and south to northeastern and northern Minnesota, and central Wisconsin and Michigan; very abundant at the far north and the largest coniferous tree of Saskatchewan and northern Manitoba, covering here large areas and growing to its largest size; common in Newfoundland and all the provinces of eastern Canada except southern Ontario; in the United States less abundant, of small size, and usually only in cold sphagnum swamps (var. brevifolia Rehd.)
Occasionally planted as an ornamental tree, the Black Spruce is short-lived in cultivation and one of the least desirable of all Spruce-trees for the decoration of parks and gardens.
2. [Picea rubra] Link. Red Spruce.
Picea rubens Sarg.