=Winter Buds and Leaves.=--Winter buds minute, red brown. Leaves spirally arranged but brought by the twisting of the leafstalk into two horizontal rows on opposite sides of the twig, about 1/2 an inch long, yellow green when young, becoming at maturity dark shining green on the upper surface, white-banded along the midrib beneath, flat, linear, smooth, occasionally minutely toothed, especially in the upper half; apex obtuse; base obtuse; leafstalk slender, short but distinct, resting on a slightly projecting leaf-cushion. =Inflorescence.=--Sterile flowers from the axils of the preceding year's leaves, consisting of globose clusters of stamens with spurred anthers: fertile catkins at ends of preceding year's branchlets, scales crimson. =Fruit.=--Cones, on stout footstalks at ends of branchlets, pointing downward, ripening the first year, light brown, about 3/4 of an inch long, ovate-elliptical, pointed; scales rounded at the edge, entire or obscurely toothed. =Horticultural Value.=--Hardy throughout New England; grows almost anywhere, but prefers a good, light, loamy or gravelly soil on moist slopes; a very effective tree single or in groups, useful in shady places, and a favorite hedge plant; not affected by rust or insect enemies; in open ground retains its lower branches for many years. About twenty horticultural forms, with variations in foliage, of columnar, densely globular, or weeping habit, are offered for sale in nurseries. [Illustration: PLATE IX.--Tsuga Canadensis.] 1. Branch with flower-buds. 2. Branch with sterile flowers. 3. Sterile flowers. 4. Spurred anther. 5. Branch with fertile flowers. 6. Ovuliferous scale with ovule, inner side. 7. Fruiting branch. 8. Cover-scales with seeds. 9. Leaf. 10. Cross-section of leaf. =Abies balsamea, Mill.= FIR BALSAM. BALSAM. FIR. =Habitat and Range.=--Rich, damp, cool woods, deep swamps, mountain slopes. Labrador, Newfoundland, and Nova Scotia, northwest to the Great Bear Lake region. Maine,--very generally distributed, ordinarily associated with white pine, black spruce, red spruce, and a few deciduous trees, growing at an altitude of 4500 feet upon Katahdin; New Hampshire,--common in upper Coos county and in the White mountains, where it climbs up to the alpine area; in the southern part of the state, in the extensive swamps around the sources of the Contoocook and Miller's rivers, it is the prevailing timber; Vermont,--common; not rare on mountain slopes and even summits; Massachusetts,--not uncommon on mountain slopes in the northwestern and central portions of the state, ranging above the red spruces upon Graylock; a few trees here and there in damp woods or cold swamps in the southern and eastern sections, where it has probably been accidentally introduced; Rhode Island and Connecticut,--not reported. South to Pennsylvania and along high mountains to Virginia; west to Minnesota.