Handbook of Tre,ks of the North khx States axd Canada. 35 



Tliis is a handsome tree of characteristie 

 aspect and rarely attains more than 75 ft. in 

 height or with trunk more than ly-^ ft. in 

 diameter. Its brandies are arranged in 

 whorls usually of from 4-G, the longest at the 

 bottom and the others successively shorter to 

 a narrow pointed summit. The bark of all 

 but the oldest trunks is abundantly supplied 

 with resin blisters which yield the Canada 

 Balsam of commerce. Very different from the 

 Fraser Fir this tree is a lover of bottom-lands 

 and moist slopes, and is of very wide distribu- 

 tion. Its abundant spire-shaped tops indicate 

 the location of swampy tracts in northern 

 regions from the Atlantic nearly to the Pacific, 

 and its soft fragrant branches can be gen- 

 erally depended upon to furnish the favorite 

 " balsam pillows " for campers throughout the 

 forests of this vast range. Rarely forming ex- 

 clusive forests of any extent, it associates with 

 the Tamarack, Black Ash, Black Spruce, Arbor 

 Vitse, etc. or where it is less common on up- 

 lands with Beeches, Hemlocks, etc. 



Its wood, a cu. ft. of which when absolutely 



dry weigliing 2.3.80 lbs., is occasionally sawn 



into lumber for boxes, etc., and of late is being 



used in the manufacture of paper, i 



Leaves about % in. long and aciito, on com' 

 boaring branches, and 1 in. or mort' and mostly 

 rounded at apes on sterile liranclu's. I'hnrirs in 

 May : pistillate with nearly orbicular purple 

 scales smaller than the bracts which ar(> obcor- 

 date, serrulate with projected slender tip. Cones 

 2-4 in. long, oblong-cylindrical, rounded at tip 

 generally bearing beads of free pitch with scales 

 about twice as long as the bracts, or rarely with 

 bracts somewhat longer than the scales.^ 



1. A. W., I, 22. 



2. For genus see p. 421. 



