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. 
Larix europea. 
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 balsdmea. 
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 toa 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. 
!TVood.—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 Ibs. 
Winter Buds.—Greenish brown, tinged with red, globose, very 
resinous. 
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