52 TREES OF NORTH AMERICA 



rows of stomata, \' to nearly 1' long, about -fa' wide. Flowers: male yellow tinged with 

 red; female with scales rounded above, much broader than long and shorter than their 

 oblong pale yellow-green bracts rounded at the broad apex terminating in a slender 

 elongated tip. Fruit oblong-ovoid or nearly oval, rounded at the somewhat narrowed 

 apex, dark purple, puberulous, about 2|' long, with scales twice as wide as long, at maturity 

 nearly half covered by their pale yellow-green reflexed bracts; seeds \' long, with dark 

 lustrous wings much expanded and very oblique at apex. 



A tree, usually 30-40 and rarely 70 high, with a trunk occasionally 2| in diameter, 

 and rather rigid branches forming an open symmetrical pyramid and often disappearing 

 arly from the lower part of the trunk, and stout branchlets pubescent for three or four 

 years, pale yellow-brown during their first season, becoming dark reddish brown often 

 tinged with purple, and obtuse orange-brown winter-buds. Bark \'-\' thick, covered 

 with thin closely appressed bright cinnamon-red scales, generally becoming gray on 

 old trees. Wood light, soft, not strong, coarse-grained, pale brown, with nearly white 

 sap wood; occasionally manufactured into lumber. 



Distribution; Appalachian Mountains; Cheat Mountain, near Cheat Bridge, Randolph 

 County, West Virginia, and from southwestern Virginia to western North Carolina and 

 eastern Tennessee, often forming forests of considerable extent at elevations between 

 4000 and 6000 above the sea-level. 



Occasionally planted in the parks and gardens of the northern states and of Europe, 

 but short-lived in cultivation and of little value as an ornamental tree. 



2. Abies balsamea Mill. Balsam Fir. 



Leaves dark green and lustrous on the upper surface, silvery white on the lower surface, 

 with bands of 4-8 rows of stomata, \' long on cone-bearing branches to \\ long on the 

 sterile branches of young trees, straight, acute or acuminate, with short or elongated rigid 



Fig. 53 



callous tips, spreading at nearly right angles to the branch on young trees and sterile 

 branches, on the upper branches of older trees often broadest above the middle, rounded 

 or obtusely short-pointed at apex, occasionally emarginate on branches at the top of the 

 tree. Flowers: male yellow, more or less deeply tinged with reddish purple; female 

 with nearly orbicular purple scales much shorter than their oblong-obovate serrulate pale 

 yellow-green bracts emarginate with a broad apex abruptly contracted into a long slender 

 recurved tip. Fruit oblong-cylindric, gradually narrowed to the rounded apex, puberu- 

 lous, dark rich purple, 2'-4' long, with scales usually longer than broad, generally almost 

 twice as long; rarely not as long as their bracts, (var. phanerolepis Fern.); seeds about \' 

 long and rather shorter than their light brown wings. 



