is comparatively soft and undurable; and is 
therefore less imported from foreign countries, 
and less esteemed by carpenters, than that of 
the Norway spruce. The liquid resin called 
Strasburg turpentine is obtained from artificial 
incisions in its bark, and from punctures of small 
vesicles under the bark ; and is collected in large 
quantities, in some of the central parts of Con- 
tinental Europe, by persons who have bottles 
slung round their waist to receive it, and who 
climb the trees by means of cramp-irons on their 
shoes to obtain it—The twisted-branched silver 
fir, Picea pectinata tortuosa, is a curious variety 
of the common silver fir, with remarkably crooked 
or twisted branches and-branchlets, of a some- 
what peculiar appearance, and very suitable for 
either pinetums or general evergreen quarters 
or extensive pleasure-grounds.—The variegated- 
leaved silver fir, P. p. folits variegatis, is a variety 
of a strictly ornamental kind. 
The balm of Gilead fir, or American silver fir, 
Picea balsamea—formerly called Pinus balsamea 
and Abies balsamea—is a native of the northern 
provinces of North America, and was introduced 
to Britain toward the close of the 17th century. 
Tt is a very beautiful tree, and has an upright 
habit and a medium size, and has more aspiring 
branches and a narrower pyramidal head than 
the common silver fir. Its branches are hori- 
zontal; its stem-bark has in general a profusion 
of small elevated vesicles, which contain a clear 
limpid resin; its leaves are shorter, narrower, 
of a lighter colour, and less marked with silveri- 
ness below than those of the common silver fir, 
and are very closely set on the branches, and 
constitute in the aggregate a richly ornate foliage, 
and are so balmy as, when bruised, to emit a 
very fine terebinthine odour; its buds, for next 
year’s shoots, swell in the autumn, and are turgid 
and of a fine brown colour and very ornamental 
during all the winter, and exude an agreeable 
terebinthaceous fluid of similar fragrance to that 
of the leaves, but stronger; its male catkins are 
more persistent and more numerously crowded 
round the shoots of the preceding season than 
those of the common silver fir; its cones also 
have a deeper purple colour, and are more swollen 
in the middle, and have blunter pointed bracts, 
and taper to both ends, and are sprinkled over 
at least one side with white resin; and its seeds 
are similar in shape to those of the common 
silver fir, but not more than half the size. This 
tree naturally occurs, not in masses, but scattered 
among black spruces, hemlock spruces, and other 
abietinous species; and inhabits principally cold, 
moist, comparatively poor, clay and gravel soils on 
the sides of mountains. But in Britain, it loves 
a good soil, and requires careful treatment, and, 
after all, often dies from dropsy or decay or other 
disease before it attains its twentieth or twenty- 
fifth year. It is much esteemed as an ornamen- 
tal tree, both on account of its immediate ap- 
pearance, and for sake of its pleasant fragrance. 
SILVER FIR. 
Its timber is soft, light, and inferior even to that 
of the common silver fir. The liquid resin popu- 
larly called Canada balsam is obtained from it 
by piercing its bark and puncturing its vesicles; 
and this was formerly supposed to be very similar 
to the balm of Gilead, yielded by the oriental, 
terebinthaceous tree, Balsamodendon Gileadense, 
and hence gave occasion to the name of balm of 
Gilead fir. See the articles Canapa Batsam and 
BALsAMODENDRON.—A variety of this species, P. 
b. longifolia, differs from the normal plant in 
having longer leaves and less horizontal or more 
upright branches. 
Fraser’s fir, or the double balsam silver fir, 
Picea Fraseri, is a native of Pennsylvania and 
Carolina, and was introduced to Britain in 1811. 
It has a dwarfy bushy habit, and seldom attains 
a height of more than about 12 feet. Its leaves 
are crowded, straight, flattened, rather regularly 
pectinated, of a somewhat lightish green colour, 
and silvery below; its male catkins’come out at 
the extremity of the branches, and are compact, 
and somewhat oblong, and about half the length 
of the leaves; its cones are sessile, of a dark 
brownish colour, about 1$ inch long, and regu- 
larly diminishing in diameter from the middle 
to the two blunt ends; and its seeds are short 
and of a dark shining purple colour. This plant 
is hardy and free- growing, and serves well for 
shrubberies and pleasure grounds. It loves a 
soil of sandy loam, and may be readily propa- 
gated from seeds. 
The yew-leaved silver fir, Picea taxifolia, is a 
native of North America, and was introduced to 
Britain in 1823. It has a pyramidal form, and 
attains a comparatively good size. Its branches 
are stiff and nearly horizontal; its bark is rather 
smooth; and its leaves are thickly pectinate, 
broad, rounded or notched at the end, of a dark 
colour, and about an inch or less in length. This 
species has some resemblance to Fraseyr’s fir, but 
its bark and young buds are much darker in 
colour, and its leaves have sometimes a more 
waved form, and are generally somewhat more 
silvery below. 
Webb’s silver fir, or the remarkable silver fir, ||. 
or the purple-coned Himmalayan silver fir, Picea 
Webbiana, is a native of lofty altitudes in Nepaul, 
and was introduced to Britain in 1822. It has | 
a similar form and appearance to the common 
silver fir; but its branches are thicker,—its leaves 
are ibs revi and broader, solitary and erect,—and 
its seeds are smaller in size and more elongated 
and sharp-pointed in form. “ This tree,” says Cap- 
tain Webb, by whom it was discovered, “ attains 
a height of 80 or 90 feet, with a diameter of the | 
stem near the ground of 8 or 4 feet. The cone 
is produced on the extremity of the shoots; the 
leaves are about one inch long, of a beautiful 
light green, having a white stripe on the centre. 
The wood is used for planes, and even equals, in 
the texture of its grain and in odour, 
mudas cedar. 
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the Ber- 
The fruit is said to yield at full capensis 
