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ish on large trees, very thick and furrowed; that of the branches rather smooth and 
glossy. A beautiful tree, of fine ernamental appearance, with more or less silvery- 
white foliage and sharply-tapering crown, 
13.—BALSAM Fir. BALM-OF-GILEAD Fir. (Abies balsamea, Miller.) 
A rather small tree growing in damp or swampy sites of the Rocky 
Mountains of Idaho and Montana (found also in northeastern United 
States and north of boundary). Itis a short-lived tree, and owing to 
the small size, lack of strength, hardness, and durability of its wood 
of little importance as a timber tree; 50 feet in height, and 1 foot or 
more in diameter; at high elevations much reduced in size. 
Description.—Leaves sessile, } to 1 inch long, narrow, flat, with smali notch at the 
tip and white lines above, a silvery tinge below; thickly spreading, somewhat reeu- 
larly in spirals on all sides of the branches, but on horizontal twigs, crowded chielly 
on the upper side. © Leaf-scars oval, prominent, lasting. Cones 2 to 4 inches long, 
1 to 14 inches in diameter, upright on short footstalks (upper branches), cylindrical, 
tapering slightly; scales blue-purple, broad, roundish, entire, each with an accom- 
panying outside bract. Branches chietly in whorls of about five. 
14.—BALSAM. (Abies Subalpina, Engelm.) 
A tall, slender tree much isolated and rarely forming forests. Gen- 
erally growing in gravelly soil of slopes and canyons between 4,000 and 
12,000 feet elevation. Itoccursin the mountain ranges of Utah, and from 
Colorado to Montana (westward to Oregon and Washington Territory, 
and north of United States boundary). It seldom attains more than 
100 feet in height, and from 2 to 3 feet in diameter. The wood is very 
soft and light, possessing little strength. 
Description.—Leaves of the lower branches usually long, narrow, and blunt, in 
two ranks; those of the upper young branches shorter, much broader, thicker, acutely 
pointed, attached by a broad base, dense, somewhat in two ranks; whitish beneath; 
Y) to 14 inches long. Young branches with longitudinal ridges. 
15.—GREAT SILVER Fir. WHITE FIR. (Abies grandis, Lindley.) 
A very large and important timber tree occurring in Bitter Root 
Mountains, Idaho, and in ranges of northwestern Montana (also on Pa- 
cific coast from latitude 40° to boundary of United States and north- 
ward); 250 to 300 feet high, with a diameter of 4 to 5 feet. It pre- 
fers bottom-lands and northern and western slopes below 4,000 feet, 
but producing the largest timber in the former situations. It is per-. 
haps of greatest importance in the northern Pacific region, where it is 
said to attain its largest dimensions, and is employed considerably for 
lumber. The wood, however, is light, soft, and quite inferior to that of 
the Douglas and Sitcha Spruce. 
Descriplion.—Leaves 4 to 14 inches long, narrow, flat, channeled, blunt, with a 
small notch at the tip, comb-like in arrangement, an upper and lower horizontal 
rank on each side of the branchlets; leaves of lower rank much longer: glossy and 
with two white lines beneath. Coves solitary, 2 to 54 inches long, cylindrical, on 
Se) 
very short footstalks ; scales very broad, entire, Bark scaly and brownish, 

