penetrate remote mountain regions where it grows. It may be expected to increase in importance. It is occasionally planted in eastern states as an ornament. BLUE SPRUCE (_Picea parryana_) is found among mountains in Colorado, Utah, and Wyoming, from 6,500 to 10,000 feet above sea level. It attains a height of 150 feet and a diameter of three under favorable circumstances, but its usual size is little more than half of that. Its name is given on account of the color of its foliage, but it has other names, among them being Parry’s spruce, balsam, white spruce, silver spruce, Colorado blue spruce, and prickly spruce, the last name referring to the sharp-pointed leaves which are an inch or more in length. Cones are three inches long, and usually grow near the top of the tree. It is not unusual for blue spruce trees to divide near the ground in three or four branches. In its youth, particularly in open ground, blue spruce develops a conical crown. The wood is lighter than white pine, is soft, weak, and pale brown or nearly white in color. The sapwood is hardly distinguishable from the heart. This is a valuable tree for ornamental planting; but in later years it loses its lower limbs, and becomes less desirable. WEEPING SPRUCE (_Picea breweriana_) is of little commercial importance because of scarcity. It grows among the mountains of northern California and southern Oregon, at elevations of from 4,000 to 8,000 feet above sea level. The leaves are an inch or less in length, the cones from two to four inches long. They fall soon after they scatter their seeds. This tree is named on account of its drooping branchlets, some of which hang down eight feet. The wood seems not to have been investigated, but its color is pale yellowish to very light brown, and the annual rings are rather narrow. The tree ought to be valuable for ornamental planting, but nurseries have experienced much difficulty in making it grow. It grows on high and dry mountains where few ever see it, but refuses to become domesticated or to grace eastern parks. [Illustration] CYPRESS [Illustration: CYPRESS] CYPRESS (_Taxodium Distichum_)