FIR TRIBE 197 



tally, or bend downwards, while the hark is of a more yellowish hue, and 

 the foliage of a sea-green tint. The leaves of the Scotch Fir are in pairs all 

 round the branches, and in young trees are sheathed at the base, and two or 

 three inches long, being shorter in older trees. They are slightly convex 

 beneath, their edges minutely notched, and at first they arc glaucous on the 

 lower side, but as they become older of a deeper green. The tree bears its 

 flowers in April and May. The barren flowers are placed in whorls around 

 the extremities of last year's shoots, and are laden with an abundance of 

 pollen. The fertile catkins grow chiefly in pairs, towards the ends of the 

 new shoots, and gradually harden into brown rugged cones, which taper at 

 the point. In the autumn of the second year these burst open and discharge 

 their seeds, which are small and furnished with a membranous wing. This 

 Fir is often sixty to a hundred feet in height. 



The Scotch Fir is a most valuable tree when it grows wild and on a con- 

 genial soil, furnishing either red or yellow deal. The trunk of Pine-trees is 

 straighter than that of most others : hence, both in naval and civil architec- 

 ture, its durable wood is used for many important purposes, and that of the 

 Scotch Fir is prized beyond all others of the genus. The resinous juice, 

 which either exudes naturally or may be procured by incision, is used in 

 preparing tar, pitch, resin, and turpentine ; and in the north of Europe, the 

 outer bark of the tree is employed for covering and lining huts, while the 

 inner bark, ground to powder, and in some cases mingled with flour, is made 

 into a coarse black bread. Mr. Lang describes cakes made of these materials, 

 and cooked in a frying-pan or on a griddle, as very good food. The leaves 

 and branches of the tree serve as fodder for cattle and sheep during severe 

 weather. Pine-chips are substituted for hops in brewing, and the young 

 shoots of the tree are eaten with avidity by peasant-children. The log- 

 houses of Northern Europe are made almost entirely of Scotch Fir ; and in 

 Russia roads are formed of its trunks, while the pine-torch is in common use 

 in many parts of Europe. M. Lamartine, describing an excursion over the 

 mountains in search of eagles, tells us how these torches are made. He says 

 that having cut down some young Firs, they split the trunks lengthwise 

 into little laths of wood, leaving the lower part uncut, so that it might form 

 a handle by which to carry the torch. The bundle of laths was held together 

 by bands of wire, which Avere placed at equal distances. They then dried 

 them in an oven, after the bread had been removed. " Those little trees," 

 says this writer, " thus prepared, calcined by the heat of the oven, and full 

 of the natural resin of the Pine, constitute excellent torches, which burn 

 slowly, which nothing can extinguish, and which, when lighted, give out a 

 flame of dazzling brightness on being exposed to the slightest breeze." 



A few years since, M. Panewitz succeeded in preparing, by chemical 

 decomposition, from the leaves of the Scotch Fir, a hemp-like fibre called in 

 Germany Wald-woUe, a word best rendered into English by Wood-wool. 

 This substance is now extensively employed for filling pillows, cushions, and 

 mattresses, or for the purposes of wadding. In the prairie of Humboldt, 

 near Breslau in Silesia, are two remarkable establishments — one for the 

 purpose of making the Pine-leaves into this cotton or wool, the other for 

 aftbrding baths to invalids, made of the water resulting from the fabrication 



