30 



PINACEJE. 



enougli, inasmuch as truthfully representing its greenness and pyramidal 

 form ; for what tree more green and conical than the fir? There is, 

 however, not only great diversity of opinion about this name, but equally 

 great confusion in its application ; and still more error prevalent respect- 

 ing the specific qualities and quantities of the very numerous and variable 

 species, quasi-species, varieties, and sub- varieties of this S.D. The 

 ancients called the Silver Fir Abies, and the Spruce Fir Picea ; as 

 witness Pliny^s Picea (our Yera,) he distinguishing it in description 

 by the terms tonsili faciliata ; a veritable fact when applied to the 

 Spruce Fir, but the very reverse when applied to the Silver Fir; 

 which latter will not endure with impunity to be clipped and shorn 

 into hedges or other grotesque forms. Linnaeus, again, reversed the 

 names, hence much of the present confusion in their nomenclature. 



§ 1. Intermedia: The Intermediate Firs. 



In this section I include those kinds which are, as it were interme- 

 diate, inasmuch as they difter in one or more of their permanent and 

 distinguishing characteristics from Picea and Vera. Their Flowers 

 are, like those of their congeners, male and female, and on the same 

 plant or tree, but separate; so the botanists call them monoecious 

 inasmuch, as though the floral organs or catkins are of the two sexes, 

 yet, the plants and trees properly speaking are not so. Their Leaves 

 are flat, more or less two-rowed, and more or less glaucous and silvery 

 on their under surface ; agreeing with Picea and difi'ering from Vera. 

 Their Cones are pendulous, and their seeds small ; agreeing with Vera 

 and differing from Picea. In their resinous juices, and likewise in 

 their ligneous tissues, they also differ in a more or less marked degree 

 from those of the species comprising our second and third section of 

 Ahietinece. The beautiful Hemlock Spruce, Abies Canadensis, 

 and the majestic and valuable Columbian Fir, Abies Douglasii, are my 

 prototypes in this section. 



Abies Canadensis : The Canadian or Hemlock Spruce Fir. 



Leaves. These are solitary, flat, blunt-pointed, and from one-half to 

 one inch long, and nearly one line broad ; rough margined, when first 

 formed somewhat downy, and more or less irregularly disposed in two 



*Uhland's fantasy, as translated from the German, by the Rey. Waller W. 

 Skeat, late F.C.C.C., is indeed very beautiful : — 



O fir tree, thy rejoicing spray 

 Throughout the year is green ; 

 Like thee, my love for many a day 

 Hath fresh and hopeful been. 



