166 



SELECT PLANTS READILY ELIGIBLE 



cumference of stem, reaching the age of 300 years. It fur- 

 nishes a most valuable timber for building as well as furniture, 

 and in respect to lightness, toughness, and elasticity it is even 

 more esteemed than the Norway Spruce, but is not so good 

 for fuel or for charcoal. It also yields a fine white resin and 

 the Strassburg turpentine, similar to the Venetian. — Beside 

 the above normal form, the follo^ving two main varieties 

 occur,- — P. Abies var.'Cephalonica, Parlatore (P. Cephalonica, 

 Endl.). Greece, 3000 to 4000 feet above the sea. A tree 

 sixty feet high, with a stem circumference of ten feet. The 

 wood is very hard and durable, and much esteemed for build- 

 ing. General Napier mentions that in pulling down some 

 old houses at Argostoli, which had been built 150 to 300 

 years, all the wood-work of this Fii' was found as hard as Oak 

 and perfectly sound. P. Abies var. Nordmanniana, Parlatore 

 (P. Nordmanniana, Steven). Crimea and Circassia, 6000 feet 

 above the sea. This is one of the most imposing Firs, attain- 

 ing a height of 100 feet, with a perfectly straight stem. It 

 furnishes a valuable building-timber. The Silver-Fir is 

 desirable for our mountain-forests. 

 Pinus alba, Alton. 



White Spruce. From Canada to Carolina, up to the highest 

 mountains. It resembles P. Picea, but is smaller, at most 

 fifty feet high. Eligible for our alpine country. 



Pinus Alcocquiana, Parlatore. 



Japan, at an elevation of 6000 to 7000 feet. A fine tree, 120 

 feet high, with very small blue-gTeen leaves; the wood is used 

 for light household furniture. 



Pinus amabiliSj Douglas. 



Californian Silver-Fir. North California, at an elevation of 

 4000 feet. A handsome Fir, 200 feet high, circumference of 

 stem twenty-four feet; the stem is naked up to 100 feet. 



Pinus Australis, Michaux.* 



Southern or Swamp Pine, also called Georgia, Yellow Pitch 

 or Broom Pine. In the Southern States of North America. 

 The tree attains a height of seventy feet. It furnishes a good 

 timber for furniture and building. It is this tree, which forms 

 chiefly the extensive Pine-barrens of the United States, and 

 yields largely the American turpentine, as well as resin, pitch 

 and tar. Porcher observes that the tree shoots up devoid of 

 branches for sometimes as much as sixty feet, and he calls it 

 "one of the greatest gifts of God to man." The emanations 

 from Pines, particularly the very resinous species, are anti- 

 malarian and antiseptic, as proved by residences near Pine- 

 forests, and by the use of hospital buildings constructed of 

 Pine-wood. 



