A. BALSAMEA AND FRASERI 73 



A pectinate arrangement, by which is meant 

 leaves on the lateral branches shaped after the teeth 

 of a comb, should give one the idea of a flat and 

 horizontal arrangement of leaves. Often if you turn 

 the branchlet over, it answers the description truly 

 enough as far as the lower side is concerned, but on 

 the top side they vary, and do not convey the idea 

 of regularity that you are accustomed to see in the 

 teeth of the dressing-table article. V-shaped is when 

 the upper leaves assume the form and lines of the 

 alphabetical letter. A succession of them arrayed 

 close together, if you look down their line, gives the 

 appearance as if a plough-share had drilled a furrow 

 down their middle. At the bottom of the furrow 

 the stem is visible, and this parting, as on the human 

 head of hair, is sometimes narrow, sometimes wider, 

 according to circumstance or the age of the owner. 

 When upon this vacant furrow another crop of leaves 

 grows from the stem, these are called median leaves, 

 and very properly, as they grow in the middle. Trees 

 thus equipped are described in Group III. 



A. Balsamea and A. Fraseri. — ^This Group II 

 consists of some ten species, all of which, with the 

 exception of Balsamea and Fraseri, are quite likely to 

 be met with in Pinetums. These two, then, can be 

 dismissed with a few words. We can almost com- 

 mence with them, and end with them, by a poetical 

 reference from Longfellow : 



Give me of your balsam, O fir tree, 

 Of your balsam and your resin. 



Seemingly it contained some very useful essential in 

 the construction of Hiawatha's canoe, and from the 

 description we may conclude that the value of this 

 resinous fir was held in high estimation by the natives 

 who lived in its vicinity and freely appropriated its 

 uses, which included medicinal extracts and oil of fir 



