PINE FAMILY. 313 



A. Menzi6sii, Menzies' Spruce, of the Kocky Mountains and W., is 

 planted and liisely to become common : fine tree, with broader and'stiffer leaves 

 than the foregoing, almost priclily-pointed, silvery-wliitisli beneath ; cones about 

 3' long, cylindrical, soft ; their scales rhombic-ovate, thin and pale. 



§2. Hemlock-Spruce (Tsuoa). Cones hangbig on declined branches of the 

 preceding year, smalt, persistent, and their scales pirsistent; sterile catkins 

 very small and globular, oj a few anthers which open across : leaves flat, on 

 distinct little petioles, niost of them spreading right and left so as to appear 

 2-ranked on the branch. 



A. Canadensis, Hemlock-Spruce. Common on hills N., and planted 

 for ornament : large tree, with coarse wood, light and spreading spray, broadish- 

 Ihiear and blunt leaves only ^' long, green above and white beneath, and oval 

 cones only J' or §' long, their bracts very short and hidden. 



A. Douglfeii, Douglas Spruce, one of the tall trees from Eoclty 

 Mountains and W. to the Pacific, planted but proves not quite hardy enough N., 

 is ti this section : it has slender leaves 1' or more long, light green, indistinctly ' 

 2-ranked; cones 2' -3' long, loose, with pointed and toothed bracts projecting 

 beyond the scales. 



§ 3. Fir. Cones set rigidly erect on the upper side of spreading brnnrhes of the 

 preceding year, their scales and commonly cunspicums bracts falling away 

 with the seeds when ripe from the persistent slender axis ; seeds resinous : 

 anthers irregularly bursting : leaves flat, white beneath each side of the 

 prominent midrib, those on horizontal branches inclined to spread right and 

 left so as to appear 2-ranked. 

 » Balsam Firs, native trees: bark yielding Canada balsam from blisters, Sj-c. 

 A. balsamea, Common B. Small tree of cold or wet grounds N., hand- 

 some when young, but short-lived, with worthless wood, narrow linear leaves 

 §' or less than 1' long and much crowded, cylindrical violet-colored cones 2't-4' 

 long and 1 ' thick, their bracts with only the abrupt slender point projecting. 



A. Priseri, Fraser's or Southern B. Along the higher AUeghanics : 

 small tree, like the precedmg ; but the small cones (only l'-2' long) oblong- 

 ovate, with the sho^^pointed upper part of the bracts conspicuously projecting 

 and reflexed. 



» * SiLVEK-FiRS, &c., very choice ornamental trees, only the first at all common. 

 ■1- Leaves blunt. 



A. peotin&ta, European Silver-F. Large" tree with wood, its horizon- 

 tal branches with narrow leaves (greener above than -in Balsam F., nearly as 

 white beneath and 1^' long) forming a flat spray; cones 6' -8' long, with 

 slender,projecting points to the bracts 



A. lJordmanni&,na, from the Crimea and N. Asia ; with thicker-set and 

 broader leaves than the foregoing, linear, curved, 1' long, deep green above and 

 whitened beneath ; cones lai-ge and ovate. 



A. Pichta, Siberian SiLver-F. ; with thicker-set leaves than those of 

 European Silver-Fir, dark green above and less white beneath ; cones only 3' 

 long, their short bracts concealed under the scales. 



A. gr&ndis. Great Silver-Fir of Oregon and California ; resembles a 

 fine Balsam Fir on a large scale, with broader leaves notched at the end, about 

 1' long, and thicker cones with concealed bracts. 



■1- Leaves acute or pointed, especially on main shoots, rigid, widely and about 

 ■ equally spreading on ail sides. 



A. Cephal6nica, Cephalonian Silver-Fir : reinarkable for its very 

 stiff almost prickly-pointed squarrose leaves dark green above, white beneath. 



A. Pinsapo, Spanish Silver.Fir : resembles the last, but not so hardy, 

 leaves less pointed, and the bracts of the cones are concealed. 



8. LARIX, LAUCH. (The ancient name.) Trees planted for ornament 

 and valuable for timber : branches slender, the young ones pendulous : flow- 

 ers in earliest spring, much before the leaves appear: catkins from latcrV 



