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JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



same forest region between tlie Columbia River and the base of 

 Mount Shasta, where grow these two wonderful Firs — amabilis and 

 iiobilis ; also near and below them is Abies grandis, and above, high 

 on the timber line of Mount Hood, is a fourth species — the Abies 

 lasiocarpa — this restricted region, of a few miles in extent, containing 

 more species of Fir than any other known area (J. G. Lemmon). 



A. balsamea. Mill. Diet. n. 3. Pinus balsamea, Linn. Spec. 

 PI. 1421. Abies bcdsamifera, Michx. Fl. Bor. Amer, ii. 207. Picea 

 balsamea, Loud. Arb. iv. 2339, f. 2240-41. 



Habitat. — Northern JSTewfoundland and Labrador to the southern 

 shores of Hudson Bay ; north-west to the Great Bear Lake and the 

 eastern base of the Rocky Mountains ; south through the Northern 

 States to Pennsylvania, Central Michigan, and Minnesota, and along 

 the Alleghany Mountains to the high peaks of Virginia. 



A tree 70-80 feet in height, with a trunk rarely exceeding 2 feet 

 in diameter, or at high elevations reduced to a low, prostrate shrub 

 (A. hudsonica, hort.); damp woods and mountain swamps (C. S. 

 Sargent). 



Canadian balsam, or balm of fir, an aromatic liquid oleo-resin 

 obtained from this and other species of Abies by puncturing the 

 vesicles formed under the bark of the stem and branches, is used 

 medicinally, chiefly in the treatment of chronic catarrhal affections, and 

 in the arts ("U.S. Dispensatory," ed. 14, 898, 900; "Nat. Dispensa- 

 tory," ed. 2, 1417 ; Fliickiger andHanbury, " Pharmacographia," 552). 



Specimens of A. balsamea, about fifty' years old and 40 feet high, 

 are to be met with in Danish gardens. 



In Norway, along the south coast, and on the west coast as far as 

 Trondhjem (63° 20'), it may frequently be found ; and in the neigh- 

 bourhood of Christiania a tree of this species, about a hundred years 

 old, has attained a height of nearly 60 feet and a girth of more than 

 6 feet (Schiibeler, " Viridarium Norvegicum "). 



A. brachyphylla, Maxim. Mel. Biolog. vi. 23. Pinns brachy- 

 pliylla, Pari, in DC. Prodr. xvi. 2, 424; Ant. Conif. 78 (1846); 

 Endl. Syn. Conif. 101 (1847). Picea brachyphylla, Gord. Pinet. 

 ed. 2, 201. Abies Veitchi, hort. A. Webbiana, hort. Picea Veitchi, 

 hort. P. firma, hort. P. pinnosa, hort. (the last five are all errone- 

 ous synonyms given in gardens). Abies homolepis, Lindl. and Gord. 

 Journ. Hort. Soc. 1850, 210 ; Carr. Tr. Gen. Conif. 215 (1853) ; 

 Miquel, Prolus. Flor. Jap. (1867). 



This name will for the present be kept to one plant, which resembles 

 that known as Abies homolepis. 



According to Dr. H. Mayr, this Silver Fir is to be found in 

 great abundance, between 36° and 38°, on the high mountains of 

 .Japan. About 1870 it was imported direct from Saghalien to 

 Copenhagen, where one tree has since thiiven well, although it has 



