BALSAM FIR; SHE BALSAM (Abies Fraseri, Poir). 40 to 60 feet. Open, pyramidal tree, with stiff, horizontal ending in stout, yellowish-brown, fuzzy twigs, with crowded, shining foliage. Bark cinnamon-red, thin, scaly, at length becoming gray. Wood coarse-grained, pale brown, weak, soft, used locally for lumber. • Leaves dark green, lustrous above, pale beneath, 4 to 1 inch long, narrow, flat, with median groove above, curved and twisted to appear 2-ranked on the twig; tips blunt or notched. Flowers cone clusters; stami nate yellow, with red anthers; pistillate erect on upper side of twig, with broad green scales, each over a yellow-green, finger tipped bract that stands out from it. Fruit erect oval
about 24 inches long, the toothed bracts, yellowish green, turning back over the plain purple scales; seeds winged, falling with the scales and bracts, leaving the axis of the cone, which is tardy in falling off. Dist.: In forests 4,000 to 6,000 feet elevation in Appaiachian Mountains, southwestern Virginia. eastern Tennessee, and western North Carolina.