62 A MANUAL OP THE CONIFERS. 



The Firs are highly ornamental trees. In the landscape their 

 formal but elegant outline and dark aspect afford a strong con- 

 trast to the more irregular outline and light foliage of the broad- 

 leaved deciduous trees. As single specimens for the lawn or park, 

 the most eligible as well as the most admired subjects are found 

 among the Silver Firs. Most of the Spruce Firs are highly valued 

 for their timber, and some members of the tribe yield in their 

 secretions resinous products of various economic uses. 



The Firs admit of a division into three Sections, the species 

 belonging to each possessing some common feature in habit, foliage, 

 &c, distinct from the species included in the others. As a separate 

 and different degree of importance is attached to each of the 

 Sections in the practical operations of planting, it will be con- 

 venient to adopt the division into Sections in this place, taking 

 them in the following order : — 



I. Picece — The Spruce Firs. 



II. Sapini — The Silver Firs. 



III. Tsugce — The Hemlock Firs. 



There are two . species which cannot strictly be placed in either 

 section. The Douglas Fir, which, on account of its great size, 

 general aspect, and for the valuable timber it affords, would be 

 popularly classed with the Spruces, is, nevertheless, more closely allied 

 to the Tsuga or Hemlock section. The Foo-chow Fir, discovered by 

 Mr. Fortune in north China, is anomalous ; having some of the 

 characters of the Silver Firs, it also has others indicating affinity 

 with the Spruces. 



Abies is the Latin name of the- common Silver Fir (A. pectinata); 

 its derivation from iiirioe (apios), a Pear tree, is hypothetical. 



Section I. — Picm. The Spruce Firs. 



The Spruce Firs, of which the common Spruce (Abies excelsa), may 

 be taken as the type, form a well-defined group among Coniferous 

 trees, easily recognised by their conical or pyramidal habit and 

 dense foliage. They are distinguished both from the Silver and 

 from the Hemlock Firs — 



By their leaves, which are acicular or needle-shaped, more 

 or less distinctly tetragonal or four-angled, with a prominent 



