CONIFERS, OR COKE-BEARING TREES. 251 



an inch long, somewhat triangular and compressed on the 

 edges. A large tree, seventy-five to a hundred and fifty feet 

 high, with stem three to four feet in diameter, covered with a 

 rough, grayish bark. Wood very white, soft, and of inferior 

 quality. Miners in New Mexico assured me that this tree was 

 known as the " Black Balsam" in that region, but they could 

 give no good reason for such a name, as the wood is very white 

 and the foliage is often of a light silvery color. A common tree 

 from Northern New Mexico, northward and westward, at ele- 

 vations of from three to ten thousand feet, and quite abundant 

 at the highest elevation, in the first named locality. A hand- 

 some variety, with leaves incurved upward along the branches, 

 and known as A. C. var. Parsoniana, is far more abundant 

 than the species in the canyons of the northwestern part of Col- 

 fax County, New Mexico, where I had an opportunity of exam- 

 ining thousands of specimens a few years ago. 



A. Eraser i, Pursh. Eraser's Balsam Fir. Leaves somewhat 

 two-ranked, linear, flattened, obtuse or emarginate, whitened 

 beneath, the lower ones usually recurved, and the upper ones 

 erect. Cones oblong, one to two inches long ; bracts oblong, 

 wedged-shaped, short-pointed and reflexed at the summit. A 

 rather rare little tree, growing thirty to forty feet high in the 

 mountains of North Carolina and Tennessee, although Pursh, 

 who first described it, said he found it growing on Broad Moun- 

 tain in Pennsylvania. A hardy tree, and handsome while 

 young. 



A. ran dis, Lindl. Great Silver Fir. Leaves short, slender, 

 flat, one to one and a half inch long, deep-green above and 

 silvery beneath. Cones three inches long, and about two broad, 

 cylindrical, obtuse, erect, solitary, of a chestnut-brown color. 

 Scales very broad, and incurved on the margin. Seeds small, 

 oblong, with a brittle, thin wing. The largest species of this 

 genus growing from two to three hundred feet high, with stem 

 four or five feet in diameter. California to British Columbia, 

 near the Coast. Wood soft, white, and coarse-grained, but use- 

 ful for floors, joist, and beams in buildings, but is not durable 

 when exposed to the weather. A handsome ornamental tree, 

 but unfortunately many of those that have been distributed 

 from our nurseries were grafted on some slower-growing stock, 

 and these failing has led many persons to think that this spe- 

 cies would not succeed in our Eastern States. 



A. maguifica, Murray. Red Fir. Leaves somewhat quadrangu- 



