=Winter Buds and Leaves.=--Buds scaly, ovate, pointed, reddish-brown. Leaves scattered, needle-shaped, dark bluish-green, the upper sides becoming yellowish in the sunlight, the faces marked by parallel rows of minute bluish dots which sometimes give a glaucous effect to the lower surface or even the whole leaf on the new shoots, 4-angled, 1/4-3/4 of an inch long, straight or slightly incurved, blunt at the apex, abruptly tipped or mucronate, sessile on persistent, decurrent footstalks. =Inflorescence.=--April to May, a week or two earlier than the red spruce; sterile flowers terminal or axillary, on wood of the preceding year; about 3/8 inch long, ovate; anthers madder-red: fertile flowers at or near end of season's shoots, erect; scales madder-red, spirally imbricated, broader than long, margin erose, rarely entire. =Fruit.=--Cones, single or clustered at or near ends of the season's shoots, attached to the upper side of the twig, but turning downward by the twisting of the stout stalk, often persistent for years; 1/2-1-1/2 inches long; purplish or grayish brown at the end of the first season, finally becoming dull reddish or grayish brown, ovate, ovate-oval, or nearly globular when open; scales rigid, thin, reddish on the inner surface; margin rounded, uneven, eroded, bifid, or rarely entire. =Horticultural Value.=--Best adapted to cool, moist soils; of little value under cultivation; young plants seldom preserving the broad-based, cone-like, symmetrical heads common in the spruce swamps, the lower branches dying out and the whole tree becoming scraggly and unsightly. Seldom offered by nurserymen. [Illustration: PLATE VI.--Picea nigra.] 1. Branch with sterile flowers. 2. Stamen, front view. 3. Stamen, side view. 4. Stamen, top view. 5. Branch with fertile flowers. 6. Cover-scale and ovuliferous scale, outer side. 7. Ovuliferous scale with ovules, inner side. 8. Fruiting branch. 9. Seed. 10. Leaf. 11. Cross-sections of leaves. =Picea rubra, Link.= _Picea rubens, Sarg. Picea nigra, var. rubra, Engelm._ RED SPRUCE. =Habitat and Range.=--Cool, rich woods, well-drained valleys, slopes of mountains, not infrequently extending down to the borders of swamps. Prince Edward island and Nova Scotia, along the valley of the St. Lawrence. Maine,--throughout: most common towards the coast and in the extreme north, thus forming a belt around the central area, where it is often quite wanting except on cool or elevated slopes; New Hampshire,--throughout; the most abundant conifer of upper Coos, the White mountain region where it climbs to the alpine area, and the higher parts of the Connecticut-Merrimac watershed; Vermont,--throughout; the common spruce of the Green mountains, often in dense groves on rocky slopes with thin soil; Massachusetts,--common in the mountainous regions of Berkshire county and on uplands in the northern sections, occasional southward; Rhode Island and Connecticut,--not reported.