Handbook of Trees of the ISToether^st States and Canada. 37 



The Fraser Fir is a tree of medium size, 

 usually 30-50 ft. in heiglit, or sometimes 70 

 ft., with trunk 1-2 1^ ft. in diameter. Wheu 

 sufliciently isolated it develops a distinct 

 pyramidal top with whorls of long horizontal 

 lower branches, those above successively shorter 

 to the pointed apex. The bark of the younger 

 trunks is copiously resin-blistered, that of 

 older trunks becoming covered with thin yel- 

 lowish gray papery scales, quite different from 

 that of the Balsam Fir. One of the most re- 

 stricted trees of eastern United States in dis- 

 tribution it is found only at altitiuies of from 

 4000 to 6000 ft. on the highest peaks of t'le 

 Allegheny Mountains, clothing their dry sum- 

 mits either with exclusive groves or in com- 

 pany with the Red Spruce , (called locally by 

 the mountaineers " He Balsam " in distinction 

 from this the "She Balsam") Mountain Ash, 

 Yellow Birch, etc. This requirement in the 

 Fraser Fir for dry localities is strangely dif- 

 ferent from the love of the Northern Balsam 

 Fir for wet low-lands. 



Its wood is light, a eu. ft. weighing 22.22 



lbs. and seems to be but little used, perhaps 



due to inaccessibility though applicable to the 



uses mentioned of the other species. Its 



branches are popular for use in making balsam 



pillows.i 



Leaves flat, y^-l in. long, those of the sterile 

 branches emarginate and those of the fertile acute 

 at apex, dark green and centrally grooved above, 

 silvery white heneath with 8-12 row.s of stomata. 

 Floivcrs in Ma.v : staminate reddish yellow ; pis- 

 tillate with scales much broader than long and 

 shorter than the exserted pale yellow-rreen bracts. 

 Cones mature in September, ovoid-oblong, 2-2% in. 

 long, dark purple with scales wider than long and 

 with long exserted pale .vellow-green reflpxed 

 bracts, aristate at apex ; seeds about Vs in. lon^ 

 with very wide wing oblique at apex. 



1. A. W., XII, 300. 



