236 TREES IN WINTER. 



BALSAM FIR 

 Balsam, Fir, Balm of Gilead Fir. 



Abies balsamea (L.) Mill. 



HABIT— A medium sized tree, 25-60 ft. in height with a trunk diameter 

 of l-Z ft., becoming- a shrub toward the tops of high mountains- 

 branches usually arising in distinct whorls and throughout horizontal' 

 ascending or declining, or declining toward the base horizontal in the 

 middle and ascending toward the top of the tree, forming a symmetrical 

 broad-based conical head. A rapidly growing comparatively short-lived 

 tree losing its lower branches at an early period. 



BARK — Grayish-brown, smooth with raised blisters containing a 

 fragrant oily resin; in old trees becoming somewhat roughened with 

 small scales at base of trunk. 



TW^IGS — Grayish and more or less downy, becoming with age grayish- 

 brown and smooth, branchlets mostly opposite arising at a wide angle. 

 Photograph of twig is about % natural size. 



LEAVES — Scattered, on young trees and sterile twigs generally 

 twisting so as to appear 2-ranked as in the Hemlock, on upper fruiting 

 branches and leading shoots generally covering the upper side of the 

 twigs; dark green and shining on upper side, pale below with grayish 

 lines of minute dots, flattened, generally blunt, about % inch or more 

 long, slightly narrowed at base but not stalked, arising at about a 

 right angle to the twig, leaving after falling a flat, round scar, 

 fragrant, aromatic when crushed. MICROSCOPIC SECTION — showing 2 

 fibro-vascular bundles closely adjacent and appearing as one in a knife 

 section, 2 resin-ducts between the bundles and the epidermis with 

 stomata chiefly on the under side. 



BUDS — Small, broadly ovate to spherical, generally less than 5 mm. 

 long, closely grouped at tips of main twigs; bud-scales varnished and 

 glued together by resinous coating. 



FRUIT — Erect cones ripening in the autumn of the first season. 

 SCALES — falling and leaving persistent through winter only the erect 

 central axes to which they were attached. 



COMPARISONS — The Balsam Fir is distinguished from our native 

 New England evergreens by its smooth blistery bark and by its leaves 

 which are attached directly to the twig and leave a round, flat scar on 

 falling. From the Hemlock it is further distinguished by the absence 

 of leaf stalks and from the Spruce by the flattened apparently 2-ranked 

 leaves. See under Douglas Fir for Comparisons with this species. 



DISTRIBUTION — Rich, damp, cool woods, deep swamps, mountain 

 slopes. Occasionally cultivated as an ornamental tree. Labrador, New- 

 foundland, and Nova Scotia, northwest to the Great Bear Lake region; 

 south to Pennsylvania and along high mountains to Virginia; west to 

 Minnesota. 



IN NEW ENGLAND — Maine — very generally distributed, ordinarily 

 associated with White Pine, Black Spruce, Red Spruce, and a few 

 deciduous trees, growing at an altitude of 4,500 feet upon Katahdin; 

 New Hampshire — common in upper Coos county and in the White 

 Mountains, where it climbs up to the alpine area; in the southern part 

 of the state, in the extensive swamps around the sources of the Con- 

 toocook and Miller's rivers it is the prevailing timber; Vermont — 

 common; not rare on mountain slopes and even summits; Massachusetts 

 — not uncommon on mountain slopes in the northwestern and central 

 portions of the state, ranging above the Red Spruces upon Graylock; 

 a few trees here and there in damp woods or cold swamps in the 

 southern and eastern sections, where it has probably been accidentally 

 introduced; Connecticut — rare cold swamps and woods; Middlebury, Go- 

 shen, Cornwall, Salisbury; also occurs as an escape from cultivation at 

 Woodstock, Andover and Farmington; Rhode Island — not reported. 



WOOD — Light, soft, not strong, coarse-grained, perishable, pale brown, 

 streaked with yellow, with thick lighter colored sapwood, occasionally 

 made into lumber, principally used for packing cases, used largely in 

 manufacture of wood pulp. From the blisters in the bark Canada 

 balsam is obtained which is used in medicine and as a medium for 

 mounting microscopic preparations. The fragrant leaves and small 

 twigs are used to stuff balsam or so-called "pine" pillows. 



