ILLUSTRATED GDIDE. 



59 



even if treated thus, not more than twenty-five per 

 cent will grow. Forty thousand pickles are found 

 in a pound of seed ; it takes five or six weeks to 

 come up. Fifty feet is the height of the balsam-fir, 

 by one foot in diameter ; but the double balsam-fir 

 grows to sixty feet, and is easily distinguished from the 

 former, since it has not, like it, Vesicles filled with resiii- 



33— Abies balsamifera— Balsara-fir. 



OU3 gum, and is, in addition, loftier in growth, though 

 the leaves and cones are shorter. The two varieties are 

 often found growing together. The fir grows quickly, 

 and is very useful in young plantations of tender trees, 

 as a protection against the wind, especially in damp 

 places, where no other conifer would grow. The wood 

 of the fir is almost valueless ; for firing it is hardly worth 



