Winter-buds subglobose, with closely imbricated scales. Leaves flat and grooved above, with stomata on the lower surface (in Nos. 3 and 5, also on the upper surface), rounded and often notched, or on fertile branches frequently acute at apex. Leaves on sterile branches spreading, not crowded. Cones purple. Leaves dark green and lustrous above, pale below. Bracts of the cone-scales much longer than their scales, reflexed.1. [A. Fraseri] (A). Bracts of the cone-scales shorter or rarely slightly longer than their scales.2. [A. balsamea] (A). Leaves pale blue-green, stomatose above.3. [A. lasiocarpa] (B, F, G). Cones green (green, yellow, and purple in No. 5). Leaves dark green and lustrous above, pale below.4. [A. grandis] (B, G). Leaves pale blue or glaucous, often stomatose above on the upper surface.5. [A. concolor] (F, G, H). Leaves on sterile branches pointing forward, densely crowded, dark green and lustrous above, pale below.6. [A. amabilis] (B, G). Leaves often 4-sided, with stomata on all surfaces, blue-green, usually glaucous, bluntly pointed or acute, incurved and crowded on fertile branches; cones purple. Leaves of sterile branches flattened and distinctly grooved above; bracts of the cone-scales rounded and fimbriate above, long-pointed, incurved, light green, much longer than and covering their scales.7. [A. nobilis] (G). Leaves of sterile branches 4-sided; bracts of the cone-scales acute or acuminate or rounded above, with slender tips shorter or longer than their scales.8. [A. magnifica] (G). Winter-buds acuminate, with loosely imbricated scales; bracts of the cone-scales produced into elongated ridged flat tips many times longer than the obtusely pointed scales; leaves acuminate, dark yellow-green above, white below, similar on sterile and fertile branches.9. [A. venusta] (G).
1. [Abies Fraseri] Poir. Balsam Fir. She Balsam.
Leaves obtusely short-pointed or occasionally slightly emarginate at apex, dark green and lustrous on the upper surface, marked on the lower surface by wide bands of 8—12 rows of stomata, ½′ to nearly 1′ long, about 1/16′ wide. Flowers: male yellow tinged with red; female with scales rounded above, much broader than long and shorter than their oblong pale yellow-green bracts rounded at the broad apex terminating in a slender elongated tip. Fruit oblong-ovoid or nearly oval, rounded at the somewhat narrowed apex, dark purple, puberulous, about 2½′ long, with scales twice as wide as long, at maturity nearly half covered by their pale yellow-green reflexed bracts; seeds ⅛′ long, with dark lustrous wings much expanded and very oblique at apex.
A tree, usually 30°—40° and rarely 70° high, with a trunk occasionally 2½° in diameter, and rather rigid branches forming an open symmetrical pyramid and often disappearing early from the lower part of the trunk, and stout branchlets pubescent for three or four years, pale yellow-brown during their first season, becoming dark reddish brown often tinged with purple, and obtuse orange-brown winter-buds. Bark ¼′—½′ thick, covered with thin closely appressed bright cinnamon-red scales, generally becoming gray on old trees. Wood light, soft, not strong, coarse-grained, pale brown, with nearly white sapwood; occasionally manufactured into lumber.
Distribution: Appalachian Mountains; Cheat Mountain, near Cheat Bridge, Randolph County, West Virginia, and from southwestern Virginia to western North Carolina and eastern Tennessee, often forming forests of considerable extent at elevations between 4000° and 6000° above the sea-level.
Occasionally planted in the parks and gardens of the northern states and of Europe, but short-lived in cultivation and of little value as an ornamental tree.
2. [Abies balsamea] Mill. Balsam Fir.
Leaves dark green and lustrous on the upper surface, silvery white on the lower surface, with bands of 4—8 rows of stomata, ½′ long on cone-bearing branches to 1¼′ long on the sterile branches of young trees, straight, acute or acuminate, with short or elongated rigid callous tips, spreading at nearly right angles to the branch on young trees and sterile branches, on the upper branches of older trees often broadest above the middle, rounded or obtusely short-pointed at apex, occasionally emarginate on branches at the top of the tree. Flowers: male yellow, more or less deeply tinged with reddish purple; female with nearly orbicular purple scales much shorter than their oblong-obovate serrulate pale yellow-green bracts emarginate with a broad apex abruptly contracted into a long slender recurved tip. Fruit oblong-cylindric, gradually narrowed to the rounded apex, puberulous, dark rich purple, 2′—4′ long, with scales usually longer than broad, generally almost twice as long; rarely not as long as their bracts, (var. phanerolepis Fern.); seeds about ¼′ long and rather shorter than their light brown wings.