38 TREES OF NEW ENGLAND. 



if ever mature perfect fruit. The evidence seems to indicate 

 a narrow belt extending through northern New Hampshire, 

 Vermont and Michigan, with the intermediate southern sec- 

 tions of the Province of Ontario as the home of the Balm of 

 Gilead. 



Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, occasional ; Ontario, 

 frequent. 



New England, occasional throughout. 



South to New Jersey ; west to Michigan and Minnesota. 



Habit. A medium-sized tree, 40-60 feet high ; trunk 1-3 

 feet in diameter, straight or inclined, sometimes beset with a 

 few crooked, bushy branchlets ; head very variable in shape 

 and size ; solitary in open ground, commonly broad-based, spa- 

 cious, and pyramidal, among other trees more often rather 

 small ; loosely and irregularly branched, with sparse, coarse, 

 and often crooked spray ; foliage dark green, handsome, and 

 abundant ; all parts characterized by a strong and peculiar 

 resinous fragrance. A single tree multiplying by suckers 

 often becomes parent of a grove covering half an acre, more 

 or less, made up of trees of all ages and sizes. 



Bark. Bark of trunk and lower portions of large branches 

 dark gray, rough, irregularly striate and firm in old trees ; in 

 young trees and upon smaller branches smooth, soft grayish- 

 green, often flanged by prominent ridges running down the 

 stalk from the vertices of the triangular leaf -scars ; season's 

 shoots often flanged, shining reddish or olive green, with 

 occasional longitudinal gray lines, viscid. 



Winter Buds and Leaves. Buds dark reddish-brown, rather 

 closely set along the stalk, conical or somewhat angled, narrow, 

 often falcate, sharp-pointed, resinous throughout, viscid, aro- 

 matic, exhaling a powerful odor when the scales expand, ter- 

 minal about inch long. Leaves 46 inches long and nearly 

 as wide, yellowish-green at first, becoming dark green and 

 smooth on the upper surface with the exception of a minute 

 pubescence along the veins, dull light green beneath, finely ser- 

 rate with incurved glandular points, usually ciliate with minute 

 stiff, whitish hairs ; base heart-shaped ; apex short-pointed ; 



