The Firs 



Twenty-five species of Abies are widely distributed over 

 the Northern Hemisphere, including the northern highlands of 

 Africa. Nordmann's fir (A. N ordmanniana) has come from the 

 Caucasus into extensive cultivation in our Eastern and Northern 

 States. It is supplemented by four European and two Japanese 

 species of recognised merit for ornamental planting. The beauty 

 of our native firs has been-pointed out in the names botanists gave 

 them. But they do not thrive, as a rule, in cultivation. For 

 the lawn, we wisely choose exotic species. 



Balsam Fir (Abies halsamea, Mill.) — A broad, pyramidal 

 tree, 50 to 60 feet high, with slender pubescent branchlets. Bark 

 brown, thin, broken into scaly plates with dried balsam in white 

 blisters. Wood soft, weak, coarse, brown with yellow streaks, 

 not durable. Leaves blunt, dark green, lustrous above, with pale 

 linings, ^ to i^ inches long, spreading in 2-ranked order. Flowers 

 axillary, staminate, yellow shaded to purplish; pistillate purple. 

 Fruit erect, rich purple, oblong-cylindrical, 2 to 4 inches long, 

 blunt at ends; scales broad, entire, closely overlapping. Pre- 

 ferred habitat, swamps or hilly slopes. Distribution, Labrador 

 through Canada and New England, to Minnesota; south along 

 mountains to southwestern Virginia. Uses: Wood used for 

 box material; bark furnishes oil and Canada balsam, used in 

 medicine and in the arts. Fresh leaves cut for balsam pillows. 



In the North Woods the hunter cuts the fragrant boughs of 

 the fir balsam to make his bed, and the ladies of every camping 

 party industriously shear balsam twigs in order to fill sofa pillows 

 later with the leaves. The native finds it profitable to collect the 

 limpid balsam by draining the white resin blisters that occur plen- 

 tifully on the smooth bark of young trees, and on the limbs of older 

 ones. Wounding the tree produces increased flow. Whole 

 families are often employed in this enterprise. The resin thus 

 obtained is the "Canada balsam" employed in every laboratory 

 for the mounting of microscopic specimens. It is used also in the 

 practise of medicine and in other useful arts. "Oil of fir" is also 

 obtained from the bark. 



The erect cones of this tree distinguish it from the spruces 

 with which it grows, and the hemlocks whose leaves are also pale 

 beneath and 2-rank^d in arrangement. Balsam fir leaves are 

 blunt and stemless. (Hemlock leaves have minute petiole^ 



The cultivation of balsam fir has been rather stupidly con- 



