PINE FAMILY 



Leaves. Linear, on young trees spreading at nearly right angles 

 to the branch, remote or crowded. On old trees crowded, covering 

 the upper side of branches. Dark green and shining above, pale 

 below ; obtusely short-pointed and occasionally emarginate, and on 

 fertile branches acute or acuminate ; vary from one-half to one and 

 one-quarter of an inch in length and one-sixteenth of an inch wide. 

 Persistent eight to ten years. Fragrant. 



Flowers. May, June. Monoecious. Staminate flowers oblong- 

 cylindrical, one-quarter of an inch long. Anthers yellow, tinged 

 with purple. Pistillate flowers oblong-cylindrical, one inch long ; 

 scales orbicular, purple ; bracts oblong-obovate, serrulate, yellow 

 green, contracted into long slender tips; 



Cones. Oblong-cylindrical, narrowed to the rdunded apex, dark 

 purple two to four inches long, three-quarters} td one and one- 

 quarter inches thick, upright ; scales broad, rotinded ; bracts ob- 

 long, serrulate, mucronate at the apex, shorter onbqual to the scales. 



The Balsam Fir carries its resin, not. scattered through the 

 wood and under the bark as- do the pines, flowing freely with 

 gashes, but in superficial blisters in the bark itself. So 

 characteristic is this that the New York Indians name the 

 tree, Cho-koh-tung " Blisters." 



Whoever played as a child in northern woods remembers 

 with what delight he punctured these blisters in order to see 

 the clean limpid stream of resin flow out. As it comes from 

 the tree it has the consistency of glycerine. Under the'hame 

 of Canada Balsam it has been used in the Materia medico, and 

 it is the medium in which microscopic specimens, are pre- 

 served upon the plates. 



In form the Balsam Fir resembles the spruces. When 

 young it is extremely beautiful, a slender symmetrical cone of 

 shining, dark green foliage. In the forest the lower branches 

 die but when the tree attains old age in the open, the head 

 becomes sharp-pointed and spire-like, the lower limbs become 

 pendulous sweeping the ground. 



The leaves are flat, shining green above, a beautiful sil- 

 very color beneath, and very fragrant in drying. They are 

 arranged spirally around the branch, but appear two-ranked 

 because of a twist near the base ; occasionally they spread 

 from all sides of the branch, this is especially true on the 

 upper branches. 



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