PINE FAMILY. CONIFERS. St7/ 
1. Abies balsamea (L.) Mill. Balsam Fir. (Fig. 126.) 
Pinus balsamea I,. Sp. Pl. 1002. 1753. 
Abies balsamea Mill. Gard. Dict. Ed. 8, No. 3. 
1768. 
A slender forest tree attaining a maximum 
height of about 90° and a trunk diameter of 
3°, usually much smaller and on mountain 
tops and in high arctic regions reduced to a 
low shrub, Bark smooth, warty with resin 
“‘blisters.’? Leaves fragrant in drying, less 
than 1’ wide, 6’/-10’’ long, obtuse, dark 
green above, paler beneath or the youngest 
conspicuously whitened on the lower surface ; 
cones cylindric, 2-4’ long, 9/’-15’’ thick, 
upright, arranged in rows on the upper side 
of the branches, violet or purplish when 
young ; bracts obovate, serrulate, mucronate, 
shorter than the broad rounded scales. 
Newfoundland and Labrador to Hudson Bay 
and the Northwest Territory, south to Massa- 
chusetts, Pennsylvania, along the Alleghenies to 
Virginia and to Michigan and Minnesota. As- 
cends to 5009 ft. in the Adirondacks. Wood 
soft and weak, light brown; weight per cubic 
foot 24 lbs. Canada balsam is derived from the 
resinous exudations of the trunk. May-June. 
2. Abies Fraseri (Pursh) Lindl. 
Fraser’s Balsam Fir. (Fig. 127.) 
Pinus Fraseri Pursh, Fl. Am. Sept. 639. 1814. 
Abies Fraseri Lindl. Penny Cycl. 1: 30. 1833. 
A forest tree, reaching a maximum size 
about that of the preceding species, the 
smooth bark bearing similar resin “‘ blisters.” 
Leaves, especially the younger, conspicu- 
ously whitened beneath, 5’’—10’ long, nearly 
1’’ wide, emarginate or some of them ob- 
tuse at the apex; cones oblong-cylindric or 
ovoid-cylindric, 2’-3/ high, about 1’ thick, 
their scales rhomboid, much broader than 
high, rounded at the apex, much shorter 
than the papery bracts, which are reflexed, 
their summits emarginate, serrulate and 
aristate. 
On the high Alleghenies of southwestern Vir- 
ginia, North Carolina and Tennessee. Wood 
similar to that of the northern species, but 
slightly lighter in weight. May. 
6. TAXODIUM L.. C. Rich. Ann. Mus. Paris, 16: 298. 1810. 
Tall trees with horizontal or drooping branches, and alternate spirally arranged sessile 
linear or scale-like leaves, deciduous in our species, spreading so as to appear 2-ranked, 
some of the twigs commonly deciduous in autumn. Leaf-buds naked. Staminate aments 
very numerous, globose, in long terminal drooping panicled spikes, appearing before the 
leaves ; anthers 2~5-celled, the sacs 2-valved. Ovule-bearing aments oyoid, in small terminal 
clusters, their scales few, bractless, each bearing a pair of ovules on its base. Cones globose 
or nearly so, the scales thick and woody, rhomboid, fitting closely together by their mar- 
gins, each marked with a triangular scar at its base. Seeds large, sharply triangular- 
pyramidal. [Name Greck, referring to the yew-like leaves. ] 
Three known species, the following of southeastern North America, one Mexican, one Chinese. 
