Handbook 



Tin 



OF TIIK 



XoK'TiiKKX States and Canada. 



This is a handsome tree of characteristic; 

 aspect and rarely attains more than 75 ft. in 

 lieiglit or with trunk more than 2^^ ft. in 

 diameter. Its branches are arranged in 

 whorls usually of from 4-(i, the longest at the 

 liottom and the others successively shorter to 

 a narrow pointed summit. The bark of all 

 but the oldest trunks is abundantly supplicil 

 with resin blisters which yield the Canada 

 lialsain of commerce. Very different from the 

 Frascr Fir this tree is a lover of bottom-lands 

 ;nid 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 

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

 lands with Beeches, Hemlocks, etc. 



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



dry weighing 23.80 lbs., is occasionally sawn 



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



used in the manufacture of paper.i 



Leaves about Vj in. long and acute, on cone- 

 l)earin<; branches, and 1 in. or more and mostly 

 rounded at apex on sterile branches. Flowers in 

 May : pistillate with nearly orbicular purple 

 scales smaller than the bracts which are obeor- 

 date. serrulate with proiected slender tip. Cones 

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

 generally bearing beads of free pitch with scales 

 aliout 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. 



