492 ABIES BALSAMEA. 



ground on which Douglas, fifty-five years before, had discovered both 

 this Fir and Aides tioMlis. Steps were immediately taken to secure a 

 supply of seed, of which a good quantity subsequently reached England, 

 and many young trees raised from it have been planted in various 

 parts of Great Britain of which those in the north and west are 

 reported to be generally thriving satisfactorily. 



Abies balsamea. 



A slender tree 30 60 or more feet high, the trunk rarely exceeding 

 2 feet in diameter near the base, frequently much less, and when full 

 grown usually denuded of branches for more than one-half of the height ; 

 at its highest vertical elevation and extreme northern limit, reduced 

 to a low prostrate shrub. Bark greyish brown with numerous resin 

 warts irregularly scattered over it. Branches comparatively short, 

 slender and spreading. Branchlets distichous and mostly opposite, the 

 youngest shoots pubescent. Buds small, globose or sub-conic, usually 

 covered with a film of whitish resin. Leaves persistent three four 

 years, narrowly linear, obtuse or occasionally emarginate, 0*5 1 inch 

 long, pseudo-distichous in two three ranks, bright green above, with 

 two whitish stomatiferous bands beneath. Staminate flowers axillary, 

 cylindric, 0'25 inch long, pale yellow tinged with red. Cones sessile, 

 cylindric, 34 inches long and about an inch in diameter, at first 

 violet-blue but sometimes olive-green, changing to dull brown when 

 mature ; scales clawed, obovate-cuneate, about 0'75 inch long and as 

 much broad with entire outer margin ; bracts oblong, abruptly mucronate, 

 usually shorter than the scales. Seeds small and angular. 



Abies balsamea, Miller, Diet. ed. VIII. No. 3 (1768). Richard, Mem sur les 

 Conif. 74, t. 16 (1826). Forbes, Pinet. Woburn, 109, t. 37 (1839). Link in 

 Linnrea, XV. 530. Carriere, Traite Oouif. ed. II. 292 McNab in Proceed. R. 

 Irish Acad. II. ser. 2, 684, fig. 11. Hoopes, Evergreens, 197, with fig. Macoun, 

 Cat. Canad. Plants, 473. Masters in Journ. R. Hort. Soc. XIV. 189 ; and 

 Gard. Chron. XVII. ser. 3 (1895), p. 423, with figs. Beissner, Nadelholzk. 464. 

 Sargent, Silva N. Amer. XII. 107, t. 610. 



A. balsamifera, Michaux, Hist. Arb. N". Amer. I. 145, t. 14 (in part, 1810). 



Picea balsamea, London, Arb. et Frnt. Brit. IV. 2339, with figs. (1838). 

 Gordon, Pinet. ed. II. 200. 



Pinns balsamea, Linnaeus, Sp. Plant. II. 1002 (1753). Lambert, Genus Pinus, I. 

 t. 31 (1803). Endlicher, Synops. Conif. 103. Parlatore, D. C. Prodr. XVI. 423. 



Eng. and Amer. Balsam Fir, Balm of Gilead Fir. Fr. Baumier de Gilead. 

 Germ. Balsam Tanne. Ital. Abete balsamico. 



var. hudsonica. 



A dwarf dense shrub of spreading habit, rarely exceeding a yard in 

 height. Branches close set ; branchlets usually very short ; leaves 

 broader, shorter and of a darker green than in the type. 



A. balsamea hudsonica, Engelmann in Trans. St. Louis Acad. III. 597. 

 Beissner, Nadelholzk. 468. A. Fraseri hudsonica, Carriere, Traite Conif. 

 ed. II. 217. Picea Fraseri hudsonica, Gordon, Pinet. ed. II. 206. 



var. macrocarpa. 



The lower branches more persistent, the leaves longer and more 

 crowded, and the cones larger than in the common form. 

 A. balsamea macrocarpa, Garden and Forest, V. 274 ; and X. 510. 



