The Adirondack Black Spruce (Classic Reprint), Fox William Freeman

Leaves dark green, needle-shaped, four-sided, about one-half inch in length, and set thickly on all sides of the branches; flowers in May, the cells of the antlers opening lengthwise. Nodding cones, persistent for several years, from one to one and one-half inches long, ovate in shape, recurved, with thin, rigid scales having a characteristic broken or slightly jagged edge, the cones hanging on the end of short branches. Bark thin, of a dark-brown color somewhat tinged with gray, covered with roundish scales.

While the principal habitat of this species is to be found in New York, Vermont, New Hampshire, Maine and Canada, it extends northward to Hudson Bay, and southward as far as North Carolina, although it grows but sparsely in Pennsylvania. It is found also as far west as Wisconsin. Years ago it formed a large part of the forest which covered the Catskill mountains, but was rarely found in the western part of this State.

In New York it attains a common height of 80 feet with a common diameter of 18 inches and a maximum height of 105 feet (32 with a maximum diameter of 36 inches It prefers a hilly and mountainous region with an altitude ranging from to feet, and while it is found at its best on mountain slopes it grows readily in low, swampy valleys.

It furnishes a light softwood of medium strength, with a straight close grain. The heartwood has a tinge of red; it is very often white. The sapwood, which is generally of a lighter shade, or a pure white, is about two inches deep in trees which have attained a diameter of 20 inches or more. The smaller trees have a thicker sap proportionately. It has a specific gravity of 0. 554; percentage of ash, average tensile strength.

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