ON THE TURPENTINES. 
127 
form catkins almost cylindrical, disposed to the number of two 
or three, not at the extremity of the branches, but generally 
at their last division. These catkins are directed upwards, 
and preserve this position in becoming elongated ovoid cones, 
formed of flat scales, which are rounded, serrated, and imbri- 
cate. Each scale is provided upon its back with a bract, ter- 
minating in an acute point, which appears on the outside of the 
cone. The seeds are pretty large, and surrounded with a mem- 
branous wing. 
The fir grows upon all the high mountains of Europe, and 
principally upon the Alps of Tyrol, of Valais, of Dauphiny ; 
in the Cevennes, the Vosges, Jura, the Black Forest ; in Swe- 
den and Russia. 
The epicia {Mies excels a) attains nearly onehundredand fif- 
ty feet in height ; it is the most elevated of the trees in Europe ; 
its branches are arranged in whorls less regular than those of 
the preceding ; its leaves are linear, quadrangular , pointed 
inserted all round the branches. The female flowers form 
small solitary catkins at the extremity of the branches, and 
the cones, when grown, depress, by their weight, the extremity 
of the branches, and hang downwards. These cones are four or 
six inches long, cylindrical, formed of flat scales, sulcated at the 
summit, and destitute of bracts. 
This tree, unlike the first, can lose its terminal summit, 
without interfering with its increase of height. When in Sa- 
voy last autumn, I observed, with respect to this, a singular 
fact. There exists upon the side of Montmelian, on the other 
side of the Iser,at a place called Blondet, a wood of the epicia, 
which presented to me, at first close upon the road, an elevat- 
ed tree, having two straight stems running almost perpendi- 
cularly side by side, for separated as they were at the origin 
of the branches, there was not between them an angle of three or 
four degrees. This fact surpised me more when, looking into 
the forest, I saw a considerable number of trees, apparently 
of the same age, and provided with two similar trunks. At 
last I found the explanation in a young fir, the trunk of which 
was broken at the height of six or seven feet. Of seven branches 
