2340 



AUBORETUJM AND FRUT1CETUM. 



PART 111. 



the nurseries, and is frequent in ornamental planta- 

 tions. The wood is but little employed in America, 

 on account of its deficiency in size and strength ; 

 but it is sometimes used for the staves of casks for 

 packing fish. The sap is extracted by means of 

 incisions in the body of the tree, or collected from 

 the exudations which talgfc place on its bark, in the 

 same manner as is done with that of the silver fir. 

 It is sold, in the United States and in England, 

 under the name of balm of Gilead, or Canada 

 balsam ; and, combined with spirits, Sir J. E. Smith 

 observes, it makes a not unpleasant dram. The fresh turpentine is, how- 

 ever, acrid and inflammatory, and, applied to wounds, causes heat and 

 acute pain, though it is considered of great efficacy in certain stages of con- 

 sumption. It is a greenish transparent fluid, with a very penetrating taste. 

 The true balm of Gilead is produced by the ^myris gileadensis. The 

 largest of the specimens of the balm of Gilead fir in the neighbourhood of 

 London are at Syon, Whitton, and Chiswick Villa, where it is from 30ft. 

 to 40 ft. high. The tree in the Horticultural Society's Garden, which, in 

 1837, had been 10 years planted, was 10ft. high, and had produced cones. 

 Throughout the country, there are numerous trees from 25ft. to 30ft. high. 

 Price of seeds, in London, 2s. 6d. per oz. : plants, two-years' seedlings, 10s. 

 per 1000; transplanted plants, Sin. high, 40s. per 1000. At Bollwyller, 

 plants are from 1 to 2 francs each ; and at New York, plants 4 ft. high are 

 75 cents each, 

 t 4. P. (B.) ERASER/ Pursh. Eraser's, or the double Balsam y Silver Fir. 



Synonymes. Plnus Fraseri Pursh Fl. Amer. Sept., 2. p. 639., Lamb. Pin., ed. 2., 1. t. 42. ; .4'bies 



Fraserz Lindl. in Penny Cyc., No. 5. 

 Engravings. Lamb. Pin., ed. 2., 1. 



t. 42. ; and our figs. 2243, 2244. 



2243 



Spec. Char., Sfc. Leaves 

 linear, emarginate, silvery 

 beneath. Cones oblong, 

 squarrose. Bracteoles somewhat leafy, obcordate, mucronate, half exserted, 

 reflexed. (Z)o in Lamb. Pm.) This tree so closely resembles the pre- 

 ceding kind, that it is unnecessary to describe it. It is not noticed by 

 Michaux ; but Pursh found it on high mountains in Carolina, resembling, 

 he says, P. balsamea in several respects, but differing, at first sight, in being 

 a smaller tree, the leaves shorter and more erect, and the cones not one 

 fourth the size. It was introduced into England by Mr. Eraser, in 1811 ; 

 and the original tree is in the Hammersmith Nursery, where, in 1837, it 

 was 15 ft. high, and had, for two or three years, produced cones, but no male 

 catkins. This last circumstance has given rise to the idea that the male 

 and female are produced by different trees, which is exceedingly improbable. 

 There are two plants in the Horticultural Society's Garden : one, considered 

 the male, in 1837, after being 3 years planted, was 2ft. high; and the other, 



