riCEA, OR THE SILVER FIRS. 47 



Origoni, two inspectors of the royal forests, reached Khryso- 

 vitsi, a vilhigc in central Arcadia, near Tripolizza, in the Morea, 

 where, at an elevation of about 1,500 feet above the sea, they 

 discovered a whole forest of this fir. stretching in a north- 

 westerly direction towards Alonistena, and covering Mount 

 Rhoudia and the adjacent valleys, thus having an extent of 

 above three leagues in length and one and a half broad. It is 

 called by the country people " Ilemcron Elaton" (tame fir), on 

 account of the lower situations of its forests on the mountains, 

 and the ready means for obtaining its timber for domestic pur- 

 poses, while on the other hand they apply the term " Agrion 

 Elaton" (wild fir) to the Picea Cephalonica, because of the 

 inaccessible and lofty places where it in general grows. The 

 inhabitants living near the large fir forests are in the habit of 

 ringing the stems, or cutting off the heads of the more vigorous 

 trees at about two or three feet from the ground, for the pur- 

 pose of obtaining the resin which flows from the wounds and 

 upper part of the stumps, and which stumps afterwards throw 

 out a number of symmetrically-formed shoots, the principal ones 

 of which eventually, if undisturbed, become leaders, and form 

 stems frequently twenty feet high and one foot in diameter. 



Page 143. 



Picea balsamea, Loudon, the Balm of Gilead Fir. 



Syn. Peuce balsamea, Richard. 



A small pyramidal tree, found in Canada and the more 



northern states of America, which produces the Balm of Gilead, 



or Canadian Balsam. 



Page 149. 

 Picea glaucescens, Gordon, the Glaucous Mexican Silver 



Fir. 



Syn. Abies Tlapalcatuda, Roe.zl. 

 „ „ hirtella, Roezl. 



This kind has a very glaucous appearance, with cones of a 

 bright green, when young and unripe. 



