88 WOODY PLANTS OF MASSACHUSETTS. 
inch at the ground; giving an average growth of more than 
half an inch in diameter a year. The balsam fir is found, ac- 
cording to Dr. Richardson, in Canada and Nova Scotia to the 
Saskatchawan. 
A mass of crowded branches, with minute, altered leaves, is 
sometimes found on the fir, similar to what will be hereafter 
spoken of as occurring on the red cedar. 
The European silver fir, (the abies pulcherrima of Virgil), so 
similar and so superior to the balsam fir, and which sometimes 
attains to a height of one hundred or one hundred and fifty feet 
and even more, grows with great vigor in our gardens and nur- 
series, and wherever else it has been tried. It is an inhabitant 
of the mountains of the south of Europe. The Norway spruce 
seems equally well adapted to our soil and climate. It is the 
loftiest tree of Europe, and every way worthy of cultivation 
here. In Winship’s nurseries, where it has been introduced a 
few years, it outstrips our native spruces. But still more re- 
markable and desirable trees of this genus, are found on the 
western side of the continent, within the limits of the territory 
of the United States. Such is the tree called Douglas’s Spruce 
Fir, (A. Douglisii,) from the name of the person who intro- 
duced it into England. In its native forests, it varies from two 
to ten feet in diameter, and from one hundred to one hundred 
and eighty feet in height; and a stump is mentioned as still 
found on the Columbia River, which measures forty-eight feet 
in circumference at three feet from the ground, exclusive of its 
very thick bark. 
Sp. 2. Tue Dovsre Batsam Fir. P. Fraseri. Pursh. 
Figured in Lambert’s Pinus; Plate 42. 
This tree has so strong a resemblance to the common fir, that 
it is difficult, except by the cones, to distinguish them. They 
have the same habit, the same kind of bark, and grow in similar 
situations. ‘The double fir has its leaves usually much more 
crowded, whence probably its name. It is not often, how- 
ever, by the common people, distinguished. The mature cone 
