FIORENZITOLA (1+ lorentiola), a t. of northern Italy, in the province of Piacenza, 22 m. w.n.w. from Parma, on the Ards, in a beautiful and fertile plain. It is a station on the railway between Parma and Piacenza, and is also on the ancient JEmilian way. It is well built, and a place of considerable activity. It formerly had numerous conventual and other ecclesiastical establishments. The principal church is still collegiate, and con tains some curious relics of ancient art. There are some interesting relics of rnedimval times in Fiorenzuola. It is supposed to occupy the site of the ancient Rdentia. Pop. 6,500.
FIR, a name often used in a sense coextensive with the widest sense of the word Pine (q.v.), and therefore so as to include a large portion of the Conifers' (q.v.), or at least the whole of the Linnwan genus pinus. But the name F. is often also used in a more restricted signification, and the trees so designated are those forming the genus abies of some authors, abies and picea of others, which the greater number of botanists have now agreed in separating from pinus. The SCOTCH Fin, however, is a true pine (pinus sylvestris), and will be described along with its congeners. See PINE.—The genus abies is distinguished from pinus by the flat rounded apex of the scales of its cones, and by leaves not in clusters of definite number. Some botanists include the species of larch (q.v.) and cedar (q.v.) in the genus abies; but if these be separated, no species with clustered leaves remain in this genus, which then contains only the different kinds of SPRUCE FIR and of SILVER Fin, or species most nearly allied to those which ordinarily bear these names. All of them are evergreen. The spruce firs form the genus abies of some authors, distinguished by short solitary leaves, scattered all round the branchlets, and by the scales of the (pendulous) cones being attenuated at the apex, and remaining fixed to the axis of the cone. The silver firs form the genus picea of some, distinguished by the deciduous scales of the (erect) cones. It being supposed, however, that the Linnman names had been given through mistake, and that the com mon silver fir is the true abies of the ancients, and the Norway spruce their picea, Link has attempted, but without being followed by many, to restore these names to their ancient use, and to denominate the genera accordingly. The NORWAY SPRUCE (abies excelsa or pinus abies) is a noble tree, sometimes attaining the height of 180 ft., with long cylindrical pendulous cones, denticulate scales, and scattered, green, crowded, sud denly pointed, almost quadrangular leaves. It is the Fichte of the Germans, called also Rothtanne or Schwarztanne. Like the other kinds both of spruce and silver fir, it exhibits the peculiar character of the coniferce more perfectly than many of the true pines do, in its perfectly erect stem, from which proceed almost whorled horizontal branches. It is a very beautiful pyramidal tree, and when old, its long branches droop towards the ground. It forms entire forests in the middle and n. of Europe and in Asia, chiefly upon elevated ridges, although it prefers moist places. It loves dis tricts of primitive rock. In some places, it is found even within the arctic circle. It is not a native of Britain, but has long been very generally planted, although too often it is merely made a nurse for other trees, and is not allowed to attain a considerable age or size. It is of rapid growth, but is believed to live to the age of 400 years. It yields the same products as the Scotch fir, resin, turpentine, tar, and lampblack (see these heads); but more resin than turpentine. The true spruce resin flows spontaneously from the bark. The purest pieces are whit• ish or pale yellow, are sold under the name of common FRANKINCENSE, and used for ointments and plasters, and when melted yield the common Burgundy pitch (q.v.). The bark of the spruce is a good and cheap non-conductor of heat; the cones are an excellent substitute for tanners' bark. In Sweden and Norway, the inner bark is made into baskets; and the long and slender roots, split and boiled with alkali and sea-salt, are dried, and twisted into cordage, which is used both for vessels and by farmers. The wood is used for fuel and for house-building; it also supplies masts and spars for ships. It is the WHITE CHRISTIANIA DEAL and DANZIG DEAL of the market, and is very largely imported into Britain from Norway and the Baltic. It is whiter, lighter, less resinous, and more elastic than the timber of Scotch fir. The sapwood, whilst still in a gelatinous state, is sweet, and is eaten fresh in Sweden and Lapland; and the inner bark, in times of scarcity, is mixed with a little flour or meal of some kind, and baked into bread. The young shoots, still covered with their bud scales, are in many parts of Europe used for fumigation. The leaf-buds are also employed medicinally in cases of scurvy, rheumatism, and gout. The pollen is often sold by apothecaries instead of the dust of the clubmoss or Lycop6diunt.— A very superior variety of this F. is known as the RED NORWAY SPRUCE. Dwarf varieties are culti vated amongst ornamental shrubs.—The BLACK SPRUCE (Able.s nigra), of which the RED SPRUCE (sometimes called A. 7-ubra) is regarded as a mere variety caused by difference of soil, and the WuiTE SPRUCE (A. elba), form great woods in North America. The black spruce is found as far n. as lat. 65°. Both species are now common in plantations in Britain. Both have quadrangular leaves; those of. the black spruce are of a dark glaucous green, those of the white spruce are of a lighter color. The cones of the black spruce are short, ovate-oblong, obtuse, and pendulous, with rounded scales ragged at the edge; those of the white spruce are oval, and tapering to a point with entire scales.
The black spruce is a valuable timber tree, supplying yards of ships, etc., but its planks are apt to split. The white spruce is smaller, and the timber inferior. From the black spruce the essence of spruce is obtained, which is so useful as an antiscorbutic in long voyages, and is used for making spruce-beer. Spruce-beer is also made by adding molasses or maple sugar to a decoction of the young brauchlets, and allowing the whole to ferment. From the fibres of the root of the white spruce, macerated in water, the Canadians prepare the thread with which they sew their birch-bark canoes; and the seams are made water-tight with its resin.—From the twigs of the ORIENTAL FIR (A. ' Orientals), a native of the Levant, a very fine clear resin exudes, which is known by the name of SAPEVDUS' TEARS. This F. has a very short quadrangular leaves, densely crowded, and uniformly imbricated.—The HEMLOCK SPRUCE of North America (A. Canadensis) forms great part of the forests of Canada and of the northern states of America, extending northwards as far as Hudson's bay. Its timber is not much esteemed, as it splits very obliquely, and decays rapidly in the atmosphere; but the bark is valued for tanning. The leaves are two-rowed, fiat, and obtuse. The cones are scarcely longer than the leaves. The young trees have a very graceful appearance, but the older ones are generally much disfigured by remaining stumps of their lower dumosa of Nepal is very much allied to the hemlock spruce.—A. Douglasii is a noble tree, attaining a height of 250 ft., which forms immense forests in the n.w. of America, from lat. 43° to lat. 52°. The bark, when the tree is old, is rugged, and 6 to 9 in. thick. It abounds in a clear, yellow resin. The timber is heavy, firm, and valu able; the growth very Menzies?* I, a native of North California, very similar to A. Douglasii in general appearance, also produces timber of excellent bru noniana, a Himalayan species, forms a stately blunt pyramid of 120 to 150 ft. in height, with branches spreading like' the cedar, and drooping gracefully on all sides. It is found only at considerable elevations. The wood is not durable, but the bark is very useful.—The KHUTROW or HIMALAYAN SPRUCE (A. thnithiana, called also A. morinda and A. Ichutron) much resembles the Norway spruce, but has longer and more pen dulous branches. The wood is white, and not highly esteemed, although it readily splits into plank —The ENOS FIR (A. Cephalonica), a native of Cephalonia, attaining a height plank- The ft., and a diameter of three ft., yields durable and very valuabletimber.—All these have been introduced into Britain, and some of them seem likely soon to be pretty common in our plantations, as well as others from the n. w. of America and from the mountains of Asia, as A. Wittmanniana, etc., noble trees, and apparently quite suitable to the climate.—The common SILVER FIR (Picea peckinata, or abies or pinus picas) has erect cylindrical cones, 5 to 6 in. long, and two-rowed leaves, with two white lines upon the under side. It forms considerable woods upon the mountains of central Europe and of the n. of Asia, and attains a height of 150 to 180 ft., and an age of 300 years. It is not a native of Britain, but large trees are now to be seen iu very many places. The wood is white, contains little resin, is very soft and light, and is employed for the ordinary purposes of coopers, turners, and joiners, and in ship and house carpentry, also for making band-boxes and for many fine purposes, especially for the sounding-boards of musical instruments. The same resinous and oily products are obtained from the silver F. as from the spruce and Scotch F. but of superior quality. It yields the beautiful clear turpentine known as Strasburg turpen tine. Very similar-to the silver F., but generally of much smallar size, and indeed sel dom much above 30 ft. in height, is the BALM OF GILEAD FIR ( Picea or abies balsamea), a native of North America from Virginia to Canada. The wood is of little value, but the tree yields Canada balsam (q.v.). Besides these, a number of other species of pima are found in the western parts of North America and in the Himalaya, some of which are trees of great magnitude, and yielding excellent timber, as P. grandis, a California tree of 170 to 200 ft. in height—P. amabills, a species much resembling it—P. nobilis, a majestic tree, which forms vast forests on the mountains of northern California—P. •racteata, a Californian species remarkable for its slender stem, which rises to a height of 120 ft., and yet is only about one foot in diameter at the base, and likewise for the man ner in which the middle lobe of each bractea of its cones is produced so as to resemble a leaf—P. Webbiana, the HIMALAYAN SILVER Fin, which in its native regions, fills the upper parts of mountain valleys, and crowns summits and ridges at an elevation of upwards of 10,000 ft., a tree of great size, 35 ft. in girth, and with a trunk rising 40 ft. before it sends out a branch. Most of these have been introduced into Britain with good pros pect of their succeeding well in our climate, and other species, as P. pichta, a native of the Altai mountains, very_ nearly resembling the silver F., P. nordmannktna, P. Fraserii, etc.—P. religiose is a tall and elegant tree, a native of the Mexico, with slender branches, which are very much used by the Mexicans for adorning churches, and cones shorter than those of any other silver fir. P. jezoensis is a new species intro duced from Japan.