CHAP. CXIII.

coni'fer.®. j'hu.h.

2313

spruce.” (N. Amer. Syl., iii. p. 178.) As the variety appears tolerablydistinct in British gardens, as far as respects the colour of the cones, wehave, for convenience’sake, given it as a species; though we entirely agreewith Michaux in thinking it only a variety.

Description. A tall tree, attaining in America the height of 70 ft. or 80 ft. inthe woods, though the trunk is seldom more than from 1 ft. 3 in. to I ft. 8 in. indiameter. The branches spread more in a horizontal than in a drooping direction,like those of the Norway spruce; and, consequently, the black spruce (notwith-standing the darkness of its foliage) has not the gloomy aspect of the European tree. The trunk is smooth, remarkably straight, and diminishes regularly fromthe base to the summit, which is terminated by an annual lance-like shoot, 1 ft.or 1 ft. 3 in. long. The bark is smooth and blackish. The leaves are of adark sombre green: they are short, being scarcely ) in. long, thickly set,stiff, and are attached singly to the branches, which they cover all round.The male catkins are cylindrical, erect, and on peduncles; about 1 in. long;yellowish, with red-tipped anthers. The female catkins are oval, and at firsterect, but soon become pendulous : they are purplish, and almost black,when young ; but become, when ripe, of a dusky reddish brown. When full-grown, they ape about 1^ in. long, and J in. in diameter at the middle. The scalesare blunt, rounded, very thin, and, when ripe,rugged and torn on the margin, andsometimes half through the scale. The seeds are small, scarcely more thana line in length, with rather a small rigid wing. The rate of growth of A.nigra is more rapid than that of A. alba under similar circumstances. Thefinest specimens that we have seen in the neighbourhood of London are atPain’s Hill, near the Temple of Bacchus; where,in 1837,there were several treesbetween 60 ft. and 70 ft. high, laden with cones. The tree in the HorticulturalSociety’s Garden, after being 12 years planted, was 20 ft. high. One at Drop-more, lately planted, was, in 1837, 10 ft. high, bearing abundance of cones.A. nigra, like A. excelsa, is liable to take root at the extremity of the branches,and form circles of trees round the parent plant. There is a remarkablespecimen of this kind at Syon, of which fig. 2226. is a portrait to the scaleof 1 in. to 12 ft. Theentire mass, whichconsists of a centretree, with a doublecircle of young trees,is 30 ft. high, and30 ft. in diameter;and the trees of whichd is composed bearabundance of cones.

One is described byMr. Gorrie, in theMagazine of NaturalHistory , vol. ii. p.

D3., as standing inthe woods of BracoCastle, Perthshire;of which fig. 2227.

13 a portrait by Mr.

Gorrie. This tree, in1828, was about 40years old, and itsheight about 40 ft. Mr. Gorrie adds that a natural seedling, which hadsprung up not far from the mother tree, and was apparently about 12 years°f age, was also, in its turn, already surrounded by a numerous and healthyProgeny of young trees, proceeding from the extreme points of the branches.

Geography and History. According to Michaux, this tree is a native ofthe coldest regions of North America ; but is most abundant in the countries

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