PINE FAMILY. 313 



A. Menzi6sii, Menzies' Spruce, of the Rocky Mountains and W., is 

 planted and likely to become common : fine tree, with broader and stifter leaves 

 than the foregoing, ahnost prickly-pointed, silvery-whitish beneath; cones about 

 3' long, cylindrical, soft ; their scales rhombic-ovate, thin and pale. 



§2. Hemlock-Spkuce (Tsuga). Cones hanging on declined branches of the 



preceding ynir, smaU, persistent, and their scales persistent : sterile catkins 



Vfrtj small and globular, of a few anthers which open across : leaovs flat, on 



distinct Utile petioles, most of them spreading right and left so as to appear 



2-ranlced on the brunch. 



A. Canadensis, Hemlock-Spruce. Common on hills N., and planted 



for ornament : large tree, with coarse wood, light and spreading spray, broadish- 



linear and blunt leaves only ^' long, green above and white beneath, and oval 



cones only ^' or §' long, their bracts very short and hidden. 



A. Douglasii, Douglas Spruce, one of the tall trees from Rocky 

 Mountains and W. to the Pacific, planted but proves not quite hardy enough N., 

 is of this section : it has slender leaves 1' or more long, light green, indistinctly 

 2-ranked ; cones 2' -3' long, loose, with pointed and tooth bracts projecting 

 beyond the scales. 



§ 3. Fir. Cones set rigidly erect on the upper side of spreadl)ig branches of the 

 precedinq year, their scales and commonly conspicuous bracts falling away 

 with the seeds when ripe from the jxrsisient slender axis : seeds resinous : 

 anthers ii-reqularly bursting : leaves fat, white beneath each side of the 

 prominent midrib, those on horizontal branches inclined to spread right and 

 left so as to appear 2-ranked. 



* Balsam Firs, native trees: bark yielding Canada balsam f-om blisters, ^c. 



A. bals^mea, Common B. Small tree of cold or wet grounds N., hand- 

 some when young, but short-lived, with worthless wood, narrow linear leaves 

 I' or less than 1' long and much crowded, cylindrical violet-colored cones 2'- 4' 

 long and 1' thick, their bracts with only the abrupt slender point projecting. 



A. Fraseri, Frasek's or Southern B. Along the higher Alleghanies : 

 small tree, like the precedmg ; but the small cones (only l'-2' long) oblong- 

 ovate, with the short-pointed upper part of the bracts conspicuously projecting 

 and reflexed. 



* * Silver-Firs, &c., very choice ornamental trees, only the first at all common. 



H- Leaves blunt. 



A. pectinkta, European Silver-F. Large tree with wood, its horizon- 

 tal branches with narrow leaves (greener above than in Balsam F., nearly as 

 white beneath and 1|' long) forming a fiat spray ; cones 6' -8' long, with 

 slender i)rojecting points to the bracts. 



A. Nordmannikna, from the Crimea and N. Asia ; with thicker-set and 

 broader leaves than the foregoing, linear, curved, 1' long, deep green above and 

 whitened beneath ; cones large and ovate. 



A. Pichta, Siberian Silver-F. ; with thicker-set leaves than those of 

 European Silver-Fir, dark green above and less white beneath ; cones only 3' 

 long, their short bracts concealed under the scales. 



A. grandis, Great Silver-Fir of Oregon and California: resembles a 

 fine Balsam Fir on a large scale, with broader leaves notched at the end, about 

 1' long, and thicker cones with concealed bracts. 



1- leaves acute or pointed, especially on main shoots, rigid, widely and about 

 ' equally spreading on all sides. 



A. Cephal6nica, Cephalonian Silver-Fir : remarkable for its very 

 stiff almost prickly-pointed squarrose leaves dark green above, white beneath. 



A. Pinsdpo, Spanish SiLVERrFiR : resembles the last, but not so hardy, 

 leaves less pointed, and the bracts of the cones are concealed. 



3. LARIX, LARCH. (The ancient name.) Trees planted for ornament 

 and valuable for tinii)er : bnuiclies slender, the young ones ])endulous : flow- 

 ers in earliest spring, much before the leaves appear : catldns from lateral 



