FOREST TREES. 165 



remember the cross-like form of the upper shoots of the Balsam being 

 pointed out to me one day by an old Irish chopper. 



" You see Mistress " he said — touching his ragged napless hat as 

 he spoke : " That even in these wild woods the Lord's cross may be 

 seen pointing to the sky above our heads, to remind us of the Blessed 

 Saviour's self who died to redeem our souls — sure it is well for us to 

 have something to remind us of Him in this haythenish place." 



When growing free, on open dry ground the Balsam increases in 

 bulk, forming a large sized, regular, pyramid-shaped tree with sweeping 

 branches of dark glossy foliage, attaining a height of from fifty to sixty 

 feet, and upwards. I never see a group of our beautiful Canadian 

 Balsams with their exquisitely symmetrical spire-like forms, rising from a 

 broad base to the slender pointed apex, but they seem to be silently 

 pointing heavenward, to remind one of the great Creator who called 

 them forth and gave them their beauty of form and their enduring 

 verdure. 



Black or Double Spruce — Abies nigra, (Poir.) 



This species seems to prefer dry open ground and springs up 

 spontaneously on old neglected side lines and waste rocky places. The 

 foliage is sombre in hue, thinner and more wiry than that of the White 

 Spruce ; the spiny leaves are arranged in brush-like form round the 

 rough branchlets. The persistent cones are small, the scales thin, and 

 waved at the edges. 



The Black Spruce is used medicinally by the Indians and old 

 settlers in cases of rheumatic pains, as an ingredient in vapour baths, and 

 its buds are used for the preparation of Spruce Beer. It is planted as 

 an ornamental evergreen.* Fine as this tree is it does not equal in 

 beauty the 



White Spruce. — Abies alba, (Michx.) 



A charming object is this beautiful evergreen when not crowded 

 and dwarfed in its free pyramidal growth by the too close proximity of 

 other forest trees. The White Spruce is seen to most advantage at the 

 edges of old concession and side lines or similar cleared places. Where 

 it can have free access to light and air, there it expands its low horizontal 

 branches and sends up its strong shoots forming a fine outline, and a 

 pleasing contrast with its pale glaucous foliage, to the darker Balsams 

 and Black Spruces that surround it. The new shoots are of a delicate 



* The timber is also valuable wliere the tree attains to any size ; in favourable localities it will 

 reach a height of seventy and eighty feet, witli a corresiionding bulk ; the timber is light, .strong 

 and elastic. 



