122 Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts, and Letters. 



ventured to give it the specific name of New Mexican, since I 

 do not find it described by any of our botanists, and when 

 the spray and leaves were shown to ToiTcy in 1857, he doubted 

 its identity with the halsamea, but retained that name on the 

 authority of Bigelow. This tree is associated with Douglas 

 spruce, in its growth, and is in all respects the most beautiful 

 of the fir tribe. I first observed it on the 19th of Sept., 1861, 

 near the summit of the Sarigre de Crista pass in Colorado, at an 

 elevation of about 11,000 feet above the level of the sea, and 

 thus wrote of it the time : "I passed -through the yellow pines, 

 {Pinus Englemani), and turning a sharp angle in the road, saw 

 such a balsam tree as would have been the making of a Wis- 

 consin nurseryman, or the pride of the most ornamental park 

 in an eastern city. Its leaves were twice as long and three 

 times as dense as any tree of the family I have ever seen. A 

 little further up all of the trees were of this same beautiful spe- 

 cies. Another half mile and the firs gave way to spruces, 

 {Douglassi) of equally brilliant foliage." The timber of this 

 fir is like the whole tribe, of little value, except as fuel ; and 

 even in the dry climate where it grows, is durable only under 

 cover. 



Four species of the juniper grow among these pines and 

 spruces, which show gi'eat ability to endure the gi'eatest 

 extremes of heat, cold, droughts and severe winds. These are 

 found on rocky points furthest out on the dry, windy plains, 

 of all trees. Though dwarfed and stunted, they sometimes 

 attain a diameter of two feet ; but commonly they produce 

 clumps of a dozen or more trees springing from a common 

 root, which spread out laterally as far as high, forming a hem- 

 isphere of yellowish-green foliage, and pale blue berries. All 

 are densely leaved, and yield an abundance of berry -like cones, 

 which are sweet and greedily devoured by the bears and birds 

 in winter. Hunters and Indians have been known to subsist 

 upon these cones, for several days at a time. At least two 

 Aaluable species might be selected from these junipers, well 



