THE FIRS 



THERE are nine species of Fir in the United States, two 

 of them east of the foothills of the Rocky Mountains, while 

 the others belong mainly to the Pacific Slope. A distin- 

 guishing feature of the Firs is their dense, sharply coni- 

 cal crowns, composed of comparatively small limbs which 

 spring out from the stem in whorls, and these develop 

 branches on each side of the limb somewhat like vanes on 

 the central quill of a feather. Another peculiarity is that 

 the cones are erect on the branches, wherein they differ 

 from the Pines and Spruces. The stem of the Fir is a true 

 taper from the ground to the very tip of the leader, unless 

 some accident has robbed that feature of its supremacy, in 

 which case two or more limbs will attempt the ascendancy, 

 each, however, assuming the same tapering form that the 

 original one adopted. All are light-demanding, and unless 

 crowded will retain their limbs. 



THE EASTERN FIRS 



THE common name given to the two Eastern Firs is 

 " Balsam," although they are loaded down with many 

 others, among which " She " is a prefix, an absurdity which 

 is as far from the truth as it is from good taste, as each 

 tree bears both staminate and pistillate flowers. Botani- 

 cally one is called Abies fraserl and the other Abies bal- 

 samea, and under these names they will be considered. 



Abies fraseri is confined to the Appalachian Mountains 

 from southwestern Virginia to western North Carolina and 

 eastern Tennessee, and at elevations above 2700 feet. It 

 is not a large tree, seldom reaching seventy-five feet in 

 height or a diameter of thirty inches. It is a slow grower, 

 and thus far appears to be short-lived in cultivation, but 



