PIXE FAMILY. 



S37 



2. A'BIES, Tournef. Spkuce. Fir. 



[The classical Latin name.] 



Stamiiiate aments scattered, or clustered near the ends of the branchlets. 

 Conei with thin and fiat scales, not thickened nor spine-pointed at the 

 apex. Seeds with a persistent wing. Trees with solitary, scattered, 

 short and rather rigid evergreen leaves, which are frequently 2-ranked. 



Cones lateral, erect, the scales falling from the axis at maturity: leaves 

 flat, hecoming 2-ranked, white underneath, blunt ornotched at the apex. ; 



1. A. balsa'mea, Marshall. Leaves narrowly linear ; cones cylindrical, 

 large ; bracts obovate, serrulate, mucronate, slightly projecting, appressed. 



Balsamic Abies. Balsam Fir. Balm of Gilead Fir. 



Trunk 40 - 60 feet higb, with sj-mmetrical branches, forming a conical top ; baric smooth- 

 ish, containing numerous small sacs or blisters, filled with a transi)arent liquid resin. 

 Leace-i about X of an inch long, light green above. Cones 3-4 inches long and about an 

 Laeh broad, violet purple ; the scales broad, rounded, thin and handsomely imbricated. 



Cold woo-ls and swamps ; northward. 



Obs. A c|uick-growing but short-lived tree, which is very handsome 

 when young, but becomes rugged and unsightly Vvhen old. It is fre- 

 quently cultivated about houses, for ornament, and is easily transplants 

 ed. The resinous liquid which is contained in the blisters in the bark, 

 known as Canada, or Fir Balsam, is procured by puncturing the reser- 

 voirs and catching the liquid as it exudes ; it is very transparent, and of 

 a syrupy consistence, and is employed in making delicate varnishes, and 

 to a limited extent in medicine. The wood of the tree is of but little 

 value. The nearly related A. Fraseri, Pursh. — the Double Balsam Fir — 

 is found in Pennsylvania, and southward upon the mountains ; it differs 

 from the foregoing', in its smaller fruit, 1-2 inches long — which has ob- 

 long w^edge-shaped bracts, with projecting and reflexed points ; it also 

 yields balsam. ^ 



* * Cones terminal, hanging: scales not falling from the axis. 

 f Leaves flat, 2-ranked, whitened beneath. 



2. A, Canaden'sis, Mx. Young branches slender^ drooping ; cones 

 elliptic-ovoid, small. 



Canadian Abies. Hemlock Spruce. Hemlock. 



Siiym 40 -GO or 70 feet high, and 1-2 or 3 feet in diameter, but tapering rapidly near 

 ih'j top. with long horizontal or often rather depending branches, which are slender and 

 riacci.l while young. Leaves half an inch to three quarters in length, shining green above, 

 blui^^h-glaucous beneath. Slaminate flowers in small roundish-ovoid pedunculate aments, 

 wliich are racemoscly arranged around, and near the ends of the slender branches. 

 ,?troliles terminal, somewhat pendulous, about an inch long, bluish-glaucous when young 

 finally pale brown or ferruginous ; scales obovate, concave', with the apex rounded, thiD 

 and entire. 



Mountains and rocky banks, along streams : tlironghout the United States. Fl. Slay 

 f/. August -September. 



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