PINE FAMILY 



edge of the treeless plain, the Tamarack is found standing a 

 tiny tree, when its companion the Black Spruce is clinging to 

 the ground, like a creeping plant, to escape being torn away 

 by the force of the winds. 



THE LARCH. 



Lhrix europaa. 



The Larch which is extensively planted in parks and lawns 

 is not the American species but the European. The Euro- 

 pean Larch is the finer tree in general appearance and as it 

 naturally prefers loose well drained soil it flourishes where 

 our native species would die. The leaves are longer, they 

 clothe the branches more generously than those of the Amer- 

 ican species, the cones are larger and more abundant. It is 

 a tree of the mid-temperate regions as well as of the north 

 and is found in all the hill country of central Europe and 

 •forms large forests in the Alps of France and Switzerland. 



BALSAM FIR. BALSAM. 



Abies bals^mea. 



A conical evergreen tree, usually fifty to sixty feet in height, with 

 trunk twelve to eighteen inches in diameter. On mountain tops and 

 arctic regions reduced to a prostrate shrub. Northernmost limit 

 yet observed is 62° ; upon the Appalachians it ranges to southwest- 

 ern Virginia. Loves moist alluvial land. Grows rapidly, is short- 

 lived. Resinous. 



Bark. — On young trees pale gray, thin, smooth and marked by 

 swollen blisters filled with resin. On old trees reddish brown, 

 broken into small, irregular, scaly plates. Branchlets pale yellow 

 green, pubescent, later they become pale gray with reddish tinge, 

 finally reddish brown. 



Wood. — Pale brown often streaked with yellow, sapwood paler •, 

 light, soft, weak. Coarse-grained, not durable. Used for cheap 

 lumber. Sp. gr., 0.3819 ; weight of cu. ft., 23.80 lbs. 



Winter Buds. — Greenish brown, tinged with red, globose, very 

 resinous. 



480 



