=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 altitudes; 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 pubescent; 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; puberulous; 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.