310 FtR. 



ascending, soniewliat imbricated, solitary, linear-subulate, mu- 

 cronate, smooth, scarcely an inch long, with four rather vmequal 

 angles, of a shining dull green colour, and destitute of stipulae. 

 The flowers are monoecious, terminal : males in catkins, which 

 are erect, ovate, cylindrical, purplish, on short foot-stalks, and 

 furnished with numerous spreading bracteae; the anthers yellow 

 with a roundish, reniform, deeply toothed crest of a crimson 

 colour. The female catkins are sessile, oblong, erect, and of a 

 rich crimson hue, with the germen spread open and resembling 

 a flat scale, destitute of style or stigma, and arising from the 

 axil of a membranous bractea. The fruit consists of a cone 

 formed of the scale-shaped germens or ovaries, pendulous, and 

 solitary from the end of the branches^ long, nearly cylindrical, 

 and of a purplish colour ; the scales flattish, imbricated, smooth, 

 rhomboid, wavy at the margin and notched at the point. The 

 seeds are small, ovate, compressed, covered with a hard crus- 

 taceous integument, and furnished with two thin elliptical wings. 

 Plate 21, fig. 1, (a) anthers^ (b) female catkin ; (c) scale of the 

 same detached ; (c?) seeds ; (e) the ripe cone ; (/) leaf. 



This naagnificent tree is a native of Norway, Russia, Ger- 

 many, and some parts of Northern Asia, and has been cultivated 

 in this country from about the year 1548. It flowers in April. 



According to Bullet, the term Abies is derived from abetoa, 

 the name for the Fir in one of the Celtic dialects. It was also 

 called by the Greeks cc8rjc and aSr/ as well as sAxrv;. 



The Pines, Firs, and Larches were formerly included in one 

 genus, Pinus, but modern botanists are convinced of the neces- 

 sity of separating them, and the species here under notice is 

 taken as the type of a new genus ; Abies. This contains about 

 twelve species, distinguished by their pyramidal growth and 

 solitary leaves. The most important are ; — the black and red 

 spruces {J. nigra et rubra), American firs, the latter yielding 

 vdurable wood, much used in ship-building ; and from the 

 branches of the former, spruce beer is obtained ; — the Silver Fir 

 {J.picea) a most majestic tree, abounding in resinous matter ; the 

 Balm of Gilead Fir, (y/. balsamea,) an elegant tree which by in- 

 cision yields the Canada balsam ; the Hemlock Spruce, {A. 

 Canadensis,) the bark of which is a good substitute for oak-bark 

 in tanning ; and the Abies DougJassi, which sometimes attains 

 the height of 200 feet, and affords valuable timber and resin. 



