128 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



Tsuga Canadensis Carr. 

 Hemlock. Hemlock spruce 

 Woods south of John Brown farm and sparingly along Indian pass 

 trail. This species is abundant in some parts of the Adirondack region, 

 and its scarcity in North Elba is one of the peculiarities of its flora. 



Abies balsamea (Z.) Mill. 

 Balsam fir. Balsam 

 A small tree. Very common but very beautiful and symmetrical when 

 well grown, but very irregular and straggling when growing in rocky, 

 bleak and exposed places on high mountains. In North Elba it grows 

 both in lowland and upland, in marshes and on mountains, in woods and 

 in pastures and open places. Its foliage usually has a silvery luster but!^ 

 this is not constant. Its leaves sometimes spread laterally along the sides 

 of the branches, in other instances they project in all directions except 

 downward, in this respect imitating the leaves of spruces. They are 

 blunt or notched. The cones are produced on short branches near the 

 top of the tree. They stand erect and when mature their scales fall from 

 the axis, leaving it attached to the branch. The flowers appear early in 

 June. The bark contains numerous reservoirs or blisters which contain a 

 limpid viscid resin or pitch known as Canada balsam. The smooth 

 bark, the shape and mode of attachment of the leaves and the length and, 

 position of the cones all furnish available characters for distinguishing the 

 balsam fir from the spruces. An unusually large tree of this species is 

 standing on the land of the Placid club. 



Larix laricina {Dii Roi) Koch 



L. Americafia Mx. 

 Tamarack. American larch 

 Swamps, marshes and upland. Common. Our only conifer having 

 deciduous leaves. A few years ago an introduced insect attacked the 

 tamarack trees, and feeding upon the leaves in such numbers as to defo- 

 liate the trees, it destroyed many of them, for the tree could not long sur- 

 vive the frequent loss of all its leaves. The insect seems to be less abund- 

 ant now and the trees still living are regaining their former thrifty 

 appearance. 



Thuja occidentalis L. 



Arbor vitae. White cedar. 

 Shores of lakes, along streams and sometimes far up on the sides of 

 mountains. A small shrubby form occurs on the open suiTimit of Mt 

 Wright. It was not seen on Mt Mclntyre. 



