PIXE FAMILY. 



337 



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



[The classical Latin name.] 



Staminate a.ments scattered, or clustered near the ends of the branchlets. 

 Cones with thin and flat 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. 



* Cmes lateral, erect, the scales falling from the axis at maturity haves 

 flat, becoming 2-ranJced, white underneath, blunt or notched at the apex. 



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

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



BALSA^tiic Abies. Balsam Fir. Balm of Gilead Fir. 



T)-unk 40 - 60 feet high, -with symmetrical branches, forming a conical top ; bark smooth- 

 ish, containing numei^ous small sacs or bhsters, filled with a transparent liquid resin. 

 Leaves about % of an inch long, light green above. Cones 3-4 inches long and about an 

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



Cold woods and swamps ; northward. 



Obs. A cjuick-growing but short-lived tree, which is very handsome 

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

 quently cultivated about houses, for ornament, and is easily transplant- 

 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 ca,tching the liquid as it exudes ; it is very transparent, and of 

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

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

 value. The nearly related A. Eraseri, 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 wedge-shaped bracts, with projecting and reflexed points ; it also 

 yields balsam. * 



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

 J Leaves flat, 2-ranked, whitened beneath. 



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

 elliptic-ovoid, small. 



Caxadiax Abies. Hemlock Spruce. Hemlock. 



stem 40-60 or 70 feet high, and 1-2 or 3 feet in diameter, but tapering rapidly near 

 the top, with long horizontal or often rather depending branches, which are slender and 

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

 bluish-glaucous beneath. Stximinate flowers in small roundish-ovoid pedunculate aments, 

 which are racemosely arranged around, and near the ends of the slender branches. 

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

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

 and entire. 



Mountains and rocky batiks, along streams : throughout the United States. Fl. May. 

 Fr. August - September. 



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