Handbook of the Trees of New England Part 4

=Fruit.=--Cones short-stalked, at or near ends of branchlets, light green while growing, pale brownish when mature, spreading, 1-2-1/2 inches long, when closed cylindrical, tapering towards the apex, cylindrical or ovate-cylindrical when open, mostly falling the first winter; scales broad, thin, smooth; margin rounded, sometimes straight-topped, usually entire.

=Horticultural Value.=--A beautiful tree, requiring cold winters for its finest development, the best of our New England spruces for ornamental and forest plantations in the northern sections; grows rapidly in moist or well-drained soils, in open sun or shade, and in exposed situations.

The foliage is sometimes infested by the red spider. Propagated from seed.

[Ill.u.s.tration: PLATE VIII.--Picea alba.]

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.

8. Open cone.

9. Seed with ovuliferous scale.

10. Leaves.

11. Cross-sections of leaves.

=Tsuga Canadensis, Carr.=

HEMLOCK.

=Habitat and Range.=--Cold soils, borders of swamps, deep woods, ravines, mountain slopes.

Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, through Quebec and Ontario.

Maine,--abundant, generally distributed in the southern and central portions, becoming rare northward, disappearing entirely in most of Aroostook county and the northern Pen.o.bscot region; New Hampshire,--abundant, from the sea to a height of 2000 feet in the White mountains, disappearing in upper Coos county; Vermont,--common, especially in the mountain forests; Ma.s.sachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut,--common.

South to Delaware and along the mountains to Georgia and Alabama, ascending to an alt.i.tude of 2000 feet in the Adirondacks; west to Michigan and Minnesota.

=Habit.=--A large handsome tree, 50-80 feet high; trunk 2-4 feet in diameter, straight, tapering very slowly; branches going out at right angles, not disposed in whorls, slender, brittle yet elastic, the lowest declined or drooping; head spreading, somewhat irregular, widest at the base; spray airy, graceful, plume-like, set in horizontal planes; foliage dense, extremely delicate, dark l.u.s.trous green above and silver green below, tipped in spring with light yellow green.

=Bark.=--Bark of trunk reddish-brown, interior often cinnamon red, shallow-furrowed in old trees; young trunks and branches of large trees gray brown, smooth; season's shoots very slender, buff or light reddish-brown, minutely p.u.b.escent.

=Winter Buds and Leaves.=--Winter buds minute, red brown. Leaves spirally arranged but brought by the twisting of the leafstalk into two horizontal rows on opposite sides of the twig, about 1/2 an inch long, yellow green when young, becoming at maturity dark shining green on the upper surface, white-banded along the midrib beneath, flat, linear, smooth, occasionally minutely toothed, especially in the upper half; apex obtuse; base obtuse; leafstalk slender, short but distinct, resting on a slightly projecting leaf-cushion.

=Inflorescence.=--Sterile flowers from the axils of the preceding year's leaves, consisting of globose cl.u.s.ters of stamens with spurred anthers: fertile catkins at ends of preceding year's branchlets, scales crimson.

=Fruit.=--Cones, on stout footstalks at ends of branchlets, pointing downward, ripening the first year, light brown, about 3/4 of an inch long, ovate-elliptical, pointed; scales rounded at the edge, entire or obscurely toothed.

=Horticultural Value.=--Hardy throughout New England; grows almost anywhere, but prefers a good, light, loamy or gravelly soil on moist slopes; a very effective tree single or in groups, useful in shady places, and a favorite hedge plant; not affected by rust or insect enemies; in open ground retains its lower branches for many years. About twenty horticultural forms, with variations in foliage, of columnar, densely globular, or weeping habit, are offered for sale in nurseries.

[Ill.u.s.tration: PLATE IX.--Tsuga Canadensis.]

1. Branch with flower-buds.

2. Branch with sterile flowers.

3. Sterile flowers.

4. Spurred anther.

5. Branch with fertile flowers.

6. Ovuliferous scale with ovule, inner side.

7. Fruiting branch.

8. Cover-scales with seeds.

9. Leaf.

10. Cross-section of leaf.

=Abies balsamea, Mill.=

FIR BALSAM. BALSAM. FIR.

=Habitat and Range.=--Rich, damp, cool woods, deep swamps, mountain slopes.

Labrador, Newfoundland, and Nova Scotia, northwest to the Great Bear Lake region.

Maine,--very generally distributed, ordinarily a.s.sociated with white pine, black spruce, red spruce, and a few deciduous trees, growing at an alt.i.tude of 4500 feet upon Katahdin; New Hampshire,--common in upper Coos county and in the White mountains, where it climbs up to the alpine area; in the southern part of the state, in the extensive swamps around the sources of the Contoocook and Miller's rivers, it is the prevailing timber; Vermont,--common; not rare on mountain slopes and even summits; Ma.s.sachusetts,--not uncommon on mountain slopes in the northwestern and central portions of the state, ranging above the red spruces upon Graylock; a few trees here and there in damp woods or cold swamps in the southern and eastern sections, where it has probably been accidentally introduced; Rhode Island and Connecticut,--not reported.

South to Pennsylvania and along high mountains to Virginia; west to Minnesota.

=Habit.=--A slender, handsome tree, the most symmetrical of the New England spruces, with a height of 25-60 feet, and a diameter of 1-2 feet at the ground, reduced to a shrub at high alt.i.tudes; branches in young trees usually in whorls; branchlets mostly opposite. The branches go out from the trunk at an angle varying to a marked degree even in trees of about the same size and apparent age; in some trees declined near the base, horizontal midway, ascending near the top; in others horizontal or ascending throughout; in others declining throughout like those of the Norway spruce; all these forms growing apparently under precisely the same conditions; head widest at the base and tapering regularly upward; foliage dark bright green; cones erect and conspicuous.

=Bark.=--Bark of trunk in old trees a variegated ashen gray, appearing smooth at a short distance, but often beset with fine scales, with one edge scarcely revolute, giving a ripply aspect; branches and young trees mottled or striate, greenish-brown and very smooth; branchlets from which the leaves have fallen marked with nearly circular leaf-scars; season's shoots p.u.b.escent; bark of trunk in all trees except the oldest with numerous blisters, containing the Canada balsam of commerce.

=Winter Buds and Leaves.=--Buds small, roundish, resinous, grouped on the leading shoots. Leaves scattered, spirally arranged in rows, at right angles to twig, or disposed in two ranks like the hemlock; 1/2-1 inch long, dark glossy green on the upper surface, beneath silvery bluish-white, and traversed lengthwise by rows of minute dots, flat, narrowly linear; apex blunt, in young trees and upon vigorous shoots, often slightly but distinctly notched, or sometimes upon upper branches with a sharp, rigid point; sessile; aromatic.

=Inflorescence.=--Early spring. Lateral or terminal on shoots of the preceding season; sterile flowers oblong-cylindrical, 1/4 inch in length; anthers yellow, red-tinged: fertile flowers on the upper side of the twig, erect, cylindrical; cover-scales broad, much larger than the purple ovuliferous scales, terminating in a long, recurved tip.

=Fruit.=--Cones along the upper side of the branchlets, erect or nearly so in all stages of growth, purplish when young, 3-5 inches long, 1 inch or more wide; p.u.b.erulous; cover-scales at maturity much smaller than ovuliferous scales, thin, obovate, serrulate, bristle-pointed; ovuliferous scales thin, broad, rounded; edge minutely erose, serrulate or entire; both kinds of scales falling from the axis at maturity; seeds winged, purplish.

=Horticultural Value.=--Hardy in New England, but best adapted to the northern sections; grows rapidly in open or shaded situations, especially where there is cool, moist, rich soil; easily transplanted; suitable for immediate effects in forest plantations, but not desirable for a permanent ornamental tree, as it loses the lower branches at an early period. Nurserymen and collectors offer it in quant.i.ty at a low price. Propagated from seed.

[Ill.u.s.tration: PLATE X.--Abies balsamea.]

1. Branch with flower-buds.

2. Branch with sterile flowers.

3. Branch with fertile flowers.

4. Cover-scale and ovuliferous scale with ovules, inner side.

5. Fruiting branch.

6. Ovuliferous scales with ovules at maturity, inner side.

7. Cone-scale and ovuliferous scale at maturity, outer side.

8-9. Leaves.

10-11. Cross-sections of leaves.

=Thuja occidentalis, L.=

ARBOR-VITae. WHITE CEDAR. CEDAR.