Canadian Forestry Journal, January, 1920 



flaking a close survoy with calipors, on Uium:^ .\!uuiil:iin Forest Resfr\-.-, .Man;: 



WHAT IS A "FIR" TREE, AND WHY? 



By F. W. H. Jacombe, M.F., Otlalva. 



The use of the word "fir" in Great Britain differs 

 widely from its use in North America. The prac- 

 ice of foresters in Canada and the United States 

 5 to confine the term to the genus Abies (commonly 

 cnown as "balsam" or "balsam fir," represented in 

 Europe by the "silver fir," Abies pectinaia) and 

 he Douglas fir (Pseudotsuga). In Europe, on the 

 jther hand, the word "fir" is used in a general and 

 ndefinite way which to a non-European is some- 

 what bewildering. One reads of "fir," "silver iir," 

 'spruce fir," "Douglas fir," and even of "hemlock 

 ;|)ruce fir." 



Probably the ongm of the confusion is to be 

 Found in the fact that the word "fir" (of Scandi- 

 lavian origin and cognate with the Latin word 

 'quercus") was originally applied to the Scotch 

 Pine (Pinus silvestris), the only indigenous conifer 

 jf the British Isles. Some four centuries ago, the 

 Norway Spruce was introduced from the continent, 

 and was known as "spruce fir." The word "spruce" 

 Driginally was "pruce," and the meaning "Prus- 

 sian;" consequently the expression "spruce fir" 

 means nolhinp else than "Prussian fir." Somehow 

 ;he initial "s" became attached to the word, some 

 :Iaim from the fact that from the shoots (sprossen) 

 af the tree "sprossen bier" was made. Hence the 



Norway spruce (Picea excelsa) came to be known 

 as "spruce fir," an expression finally shortened to 

 spruce." (The origin of the expression "spruce 

 up" is similar, possibly from a notion that certain 

 representatives of the race were superior to most 

 other people in point of natliness of attire, and, no 

 doubt, conceit). From the same sense of "fir" as 

 meaning, generally, a coniferous tree come the ex- 

 pressions "silver fir," "Douglas fir," etc. 



J. C. Loudon, writing in his Arboretum et Fruti- 

 ceturu Britannicuru in the late thirties of the nine- 

 teenth century, calls the members of the genus Abies 

 (which, however, he denominates Picea) "silver 

 firs," speaks cf the spruces as "spruce firs." and also 

 uses the terms "hemlock spruce fir" (our hemlock) 

 and "Douglas's spruce fir" (our Douglas fir). Our 

 Balsam fir he speaks of as the "Balsam of Cilead. 

 or American, silver fir." Veitch's Manual of the 

 Coniferae (London, 1900) uses respectively the 

 terms "silver fir." "spruce fir," "hemlock fir." .ind 

 "Douglas fir." 



I he Ijicyclopedia Britannica (eleventh rdi:ion) 

 describes "hemlock .spruce" and "Douglas spruce." 

 and speaks of the word "fir" as "at present not infre- 

 quently employed as a general term for the whole 

 of the tiue conifers ( Abictincac)" (this term in- 



