SECT. IL SPRUCE FIRE.
Leaves growing singly round the branches, and all spreading equally.
Abies excelsa, the Norway Spruce Fir (De Candolle; Pines abies, Lin naeus). Leaves scattered, some what four-cornered, mueronate. Cones cylindrical, pendulous, with blunt, wavy, slightly-toothed scales. It is a native of the mountainous parts of the north of Europe, where it sometimes .constitutes, as in Nor way, the principal timber. It is found all over Siberia as high as 70° N. lat., in which region it is a certain sign of the presence of springs of fresh water, for it is only seen in moist and springy places. When growing singly in rich soil, separated from other trees, this forms one of the most beautiful objects that can be imagined, with its long drooping branches touching the very ground, and its regularly pyramidal figure : but in other situations, in plantations where the trees are crowded and deprived of their lower branches by want of light and air, it becomes, after nine or ten years, an inelegant plant of little value except to be cut for poles. When in perfection (and occasionally it arrives at its greatest perfection in this country), it acquires a stature of 150 feet. Its wood is of a white colour, of a flue even grain, and very durable in the market it is known under the name of White Deal or Christiania Deal. In Norway it arrives at maturity in 70 or 80 years. Trees of such an age aro what are usually cut down for exportation, and each yields on an average three pieces of elasticity. It is employed for the yards of ships; and in America, in districts where the oak is scarce, also for their knees ; floors are occasionally laid with it, but it is not well adapted for this usage, as the phmks are apt to split. From its young branches is extracted the Essence of Spruce, so well known as a useful antiscorbutic in long voyages. According to Mr. Lambert., the curious Dwarf Spruce, called Pins, clanbraslliana, in probably n variety of Abies Abies Douglotii, the Douglas Fir (Pines nixifolla, Lambert; Pinus Douglasii). Leaves spreading equally, deep green, whitish beneath, obtuse. Cones cernuous, ovato-oblong, with rather uneven cartilaginous scales, much shorter than the bracts, which are three toothed, the lateral teeth being menibmuous, with the intermediate ones much longer and more riga According to Mr. Douglas, the discoverer of this gigantic species, it is found in immense forests in North-West America from 43° to 52' N. lat. The trunks vary from two to ten feet in diameter, cud from 100 to 180 feet in height.
Occasionally it arrives at still greater dimensions. It is an evergreen tree, with an erect taper trunk, which when old is covered with rugged bark from six to nine inchea thick, abounding in a clear yellow resin, and making excellent fueL The young branches have their bark filled with receptacles of resin, as in the Balm of Gilead.
timber, eleven or twelve feet long. The Spruce is readily known by its leaves of one uniform dull green colour, spread equally round the branches, and by its long pendant cones.
Able, orirntalis, the Oriental Fir (Pinus orientalis, Lim:liens and Lambert). Leaves very short, unifOrmly imbricated, quadrangular, with a callous point. Cones ovate, cylindrical, pendulous, their Realm somewhat rhomboid. To botanists this is known chiefly by a figure published by Mr. Lambert after a drawing by Aubrict, the draughtsman who accompanied Tournefort in his journey to the Levant. It was found by that traveller in the mountains south-east of Trebisond, above the convent of St. John. It has been subsequently met with by Russian botanists in the woods of 711ingrelia, and was seen near Teflis by Sir Gore Ouseley; bid little has been added to our knowledge of the species. The young branches are said to be hairy. The leaves are very short and dense. The cones are small and pendulous, of an ovate, tapering figure.
Abies alba, the White Spruce Fir (Miehaux ; Pinta alba, Lam bert). Leaves rather glaucous, spreading equally round the branches, four-cornered, somewhat pungent. Cones narrow, oval, tapering towards the point, with even undivided scales. Found along with Abies nigra in the colder regions of North America. According to Miehaux it does not advance so far to the northward as that species, from which it is known not only by its smaller size, the trunks rarely exceeding 40 or 50 feet in height, but also by the bluish cast which characterises the foliage, and which gives it a much lighter appearance than the sombre Abies nigra. Dr. Richardson, however, states that it was the most northerly tree observed in Franklin's first Polar Journey. The timber is of inferior quality, From the fibres of the root, macerated in water, the Canadian Indians prepare the thread with which they sew together the hirch-bark that forms their canoes. Its resin is also used to render the seams water-tight. The bark is said to be occasionally used for tanning.