30 NATURE-STUDY REVIEW [15:1— Jan., 1919 



stream of resin flow out, and how "stuck up" hands, face and 

 clothes would become ? As it comes from the tree it is a gum as 

 clear as water and the consistency of glycerine. On exposure to the 

 air it hardens and becomes amber in color. 



The natives in Canada and Maine find it profitable to collect 

 the liquid balsam by draining the white resin blisters that occur 

 plentifully on the trees. Whole families are often employed-in this 

 enterprise. Oleoresin is the substance which collects in these 

 vesicles; the bark is punctured with a tube, through which the 

 balsam flows into a vessel which is attached to the tree. 



If your emergency kit is not at hand, apply this balsam freely 

 as an external application for cuts and bruises, and you will find it 

 antiseptic and almost as good as liquid court plaster. One of the 

 most important commercial uses of Canada balsam is its employ- 

 ment in every laboratory for mounting and preserving microscopic 

 specimens upon plates. It is also used in medicine, together with 

 "oil of fir" obtained from the bark. If your canoe leaks or springs 

 apart what is better mucilage than Balsam ? 



"Give me of your balm, O Fir Tree, 

 Of your balsam and your resin. 

 So to close the seams together 

 That the water may not enter 

 That the river may not wet me! 

 And the Fir Tree, tall and somber, 

 Sobbed through all its robes of darkness, 

 Rattled like a shore with pebbles. 

 Answered waiting, answered weeping, 

 "Take my balm, O Hiawatha!" 



— Longfelloiv. 



Is this balsam only for mankind and his needs? Oh no, the 

 tree is generous enough to make us gifts, but it is also very useful 

 to it. When the tree is wounded even slightly there is an increased 

 flow of this resin, which covers the wounds and thuS keeps out 

 spores of fungi which would otherwise creep in and destroy it. 



Although this tree can withstand many hardships, cold, ice and 

 snow, things other trees can not endure, it has light, soft, weak wood 

 not at all durable and very coarse grained, of a pale, brown color, 

 often streaked with yellow. It is used for cheap lumber, especially 

 box material. 



The forest has many enemies but fire and reckless lumbering are 

 among the most important to evergreens. Animals seldom eat 



