2314

ARBORETUM AND FRUTICETUM.

PART 111 ,

• V'IhiN,

L'iir:*

MtfftiVtrTni •

lying between 44° and 53° n. lat., and between 55° and 75°. w. long.; viz.in Lower Canada, Newfoundland, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia , the districtof Maine, Vermont, and the upper parts of New Hampshire , where it is soabundant, as to constitute a third part of the native forests. Farther southit is rarely seen, except in cold and humid situations on the top of theAlleghanies . “ It is particularly remarked in a large swamp not far fromWilkesburg in Pennsylvania, and on the Black Mountain in South Carolina ;which is one of the loftiest summits in the southern states, and is probablythus named from the melancholy aspect occasioned by the dusky foliage ofthis tree. It is sometimes met with, also, in the white cedar swamps nearPhiladelphia and New York; but in these places, which are always miry, andsometimes submerged, its vegetation is feeble.” ( Michx .) The regions inwhich the black spruce is most abundant are often diversified by hills; andthe finest forests are found in valleys, where the soil is black, humid, deep,and covered with a thick bed of moss ; and where the trees, though crowdedso as to leave an interval of only 3 ft., or at the most 5 ft., between thetrunks, attain their greatest height. It is found in the same countries on thedeclivities of the mountains, where the soil is strong, dry, and covered onlywith a thin bed of peat, and on what are called in America the poor blacklands ; but in these situations it does not exceed 50 ft. in height, with shortthick leaves, of a blackish green, and cones scarcely more than half theirusual size. This tree is called epinette noire, and epinette a la bihre, inCanada; double spruce in the district of Maine; and black spruce in NovaScotia. It has been long known in Europe ; and Josselyn, in his History ofHew England, published in London , in 1672, informs us that it was con-sidered, at that period, to furnish the best yards and topmasts in the world.It was introduced into England by Bishop Compton, before 1700. Conesbeing frequently imported, the tree is abundant in British nurseries, andhas been generally distributed as an ornamental tree; which it richly merits,not only on account of the colour of its cones when young, but of thedense habit of growth of the tree.

Properties and Uses. The black spruce, according to Pursh, is of “greatmechanical use” in America , besides being “the tree of which that whole-some beverage called spruce beer is made.” Miehaux says “ the distinguish-ing properties of the black spruce are, strength, lightness, and elasticity. I®the dockyards of the United States , the spars are usually of black spruce