BALM OF GILEAD 



(Populus Balsamifera) 



THIS tree is known in different regions by the following names: 

 Balsam, balm of Gilead, cottonwood, poplar, balsam poplar, and 

 tacamahac. The usual name, balm of Gilead, is applied in recognition 

 of the supposed healing virtue of the wax which covers the buds and 

 young leaves. It has long been used in medicine, but its exact value 

 is still a matter of discussion. The wuY. Indians of the North discovered 

 a use for the balsam in mending their bark dishes, and plugging knot 

 holes in the wooden trenchers. The wax is slow to dissolve hi water, 

 and it resisted for a long time such soups as were known to the redman's 

 culinary art. Bees know the value of the wax and use it to seal cracks 

 and crevices in their hives and to hold the comb in place. It is popularly 

 believed that the economy of the wax on the buds is to keep them from 

 freezing. That view is erroneous, for it would take more than a coating 

 of wax to keep the buds warm with the thermometer from fifty to seventy 

 degrees below zero, as it is every winter in some parts of this tree's range. 



Balm of Gilead is a native of the North from the Atlantic to the 

 Pacific, but its finest growth is about the headwaters of the Mackenzie 

 river, on Peace and Laird rivers, and the lower valley of the Athabaska. 

 Sixty years ago Sir John Franklin reported that most of the driftwood 

 of the Arctic ocean was this species. Since that tune the range has been 

 more definitely determined, and it is now known that the tree grows 

 so far north that it is for some weeks in darkness, and again in summer 

 for some weeks in unbroken sunshine. It grows hi Alaska nearly 200 

 miles north of the Arctic circle. Its natural range southward reaches 

 New England, New York, Michigan, Nebraska, Nevada, and Oregon. 



Trees of all sizes abound, from mere shrubs in the outskirts of its 

 range to trunks 100 feet high and six feet in diameter in favored localities. 

 In the United States the best timber seldom exceeds thirty niches in 

 diameter and sixty or seventy feet in height. The bark on limbs and 

 young trunks is brownish-gray, frequently so tinged with green that it is 

 noticeable at a considerable distance; but usually large trees have 

 reddish-gray bark with deep furrows and wide ridges. Year-old twigs 

 are clear, shiny reddish-brown; end buds are about an inch long, the side 

 buds somewhat shorter. 



The wood is not distinguishable in appearance from that of the 

 other poplars or cottonwoods, but it is lighter than most of them, 

 weighing 22.65 pounds per cubic foot, has a breaking strength which 

 places it among the weakest woods, but in stiffness making a much 



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