422 CONIFERS. (FINE FAMILY.; 



variabilis, Pursh.) — Dry or sandy soil, W. New England? and New Jersey to 

 Wisconsin, and common southward. — Tree 50° - 60° high, straight, producing 

 a durable, fine-grained, moderately resinous timber, valuable for flooring, &c. 

 Leaves more soft and slender than in any of the preceding, dark green. 

 * # Leaves in threes (very rarely some in fours). 



6. P. rig-ida, Miller. (Pitch Pine.) Leaves rigid (3' -5' long) dark 

 green, flattish,/rom very short sheaths; cones ovoid-conical or ovate (1' -3^' long), 

 often in clusters ; the scales tipped with a short and stout recurved prickle. — Sandy 

 or spare rocky soil, Maine to W. New York and southward ; common. — Tree 

 30° -70° high, with very rough and dark bark, and hard wood saturated with 

 resin (a variety sometimes called Yellow Pine furnishes much less resinous tim- 

 ber). — P. scrotina, Michx. is a form with ovate or almost globular cones. 



7. P. Tifeda, L. (Loijlolly or Old-field Pine.) Leaves long (6'- 

 10'), rigid, with elongated sheatlis, light green; cones oblong (3' -5' long); the 

 scales tipped witli a short incurved spine. — Barren light soil, Virginia and south- 

 ward ; common. — Tree 50° - 100° high. 



§ 2. Leaves 5 in a sheath, soft and slender : scales of the cones neither prickly-pointed 

 nor thickened at the end: bark smooth. 



8. P. Strobus, L. (White Pine.) Leaves very slender, rather glau- 

 cous, the sheatlis deciduous ; cones narrow, cylindrical, nodding, a little curved 

 (4' -6' long). — Cool and damp woods ; common northward, extending south- 

 ward in the Alleghanies, but rare in those of Virginia. — The White Pine (called 

 in England Weymouth Pine) is our tallest tree, often 120° -160° in a single 

 straight column in primitive forests, and is invaluable for its soft and light 

 white or yellowish wood, which in large trunks is nearly free from resin. 



2. ABIES, Tourn. Spkuce. Fir. 



Sterile catkins scattered or somewhat clustered towards the end of the branch- 

 lets. Scales of the strobiles thin and flat, not at all thickened at the apex, nor 

 with a prickly point. Seeds with a persistent wing. — Leaves all foliaceous and 

 scattered, short, frequently 2-ranked. Otherwise nearly as in Pinus. (The 

 classical Latin name.) 



§ 1 . Cones erect, lateral ; the scales and the more or less projecting bracts falling front 

 the axis at maturity : sterile catkins clustered : anther-cells opening by a transverse 

 laceration : leaves flat, becoming 2-ranked, whitened underneath, obtuse or notched 

 at the apex. (Abies, Pliny, $*c. Picea, L., Don, Loudon, not of Link.) 



I. A. balss'i sm-a, Marshall. (Balsam Fir.) Leaves narrowly linear ; 



cones cylindrical, large, violet-colored ; the bracts obovate, serrulate, tipped with an 

 abrupt slender point, slightly projecting, oppressed. — Cold damp woods and 

 swamps, New England to Penn., Wisconsin, and northward. — A slender tree, 

 of little value as timber, when young very handsome, but short-lived. Leaves 

 1' or less in length, narrower and lighter green above than those of the European 

 Silver Fir ; the cones 3' -4' long, 1' broad, the scales very broad and rounded. 

 Also called Canada Balsam or Balm-of-Gilead Fir. The well-known Canada 

 balsam is drawn from blisters in the bark of this and the next species. 



