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Firs — Part 1

Genus ABIES, Link.

TREES of pyramidal habit with wide-spreading horizontal limbs bearing thick foliage masses. Wood weak, coarse grained. Bark smooth until quite old, pale, thin and blistered with overflowing resin vescicles; later, deeply and irregularly furrowed. Leaves usually flat, blunt, 2-ranked, persistent for 8 to 10 years, leaving circular scars. Flowers in axillary, scaly cones, pistillate erect on upper branches; staminate on under side of branches lower down on the tree. Fruit annual, erect cones whose scales fall off at maturity; seed resinous.