. Canadian forestry journal. Forests and forestry -- Canada Periodicals. Canadian Forestry Journal, January, 1920. flaking a close survoy with calipors, on Uium:^ .\!uuiil:iin Forest Resfr\, .Man;: WHAT IS A "FIR" TREE, AND WHY? By F. W. H. Jacombe, , Otlalva. The use of the word "fir" in Great Britain differs widely from its use in North America. The prac- ice of foresters in Canada and the United States 5 to confine the term to the genus Abies (commonly cnown as "balsam" or "balsam fir," represented in Europe by the "silver fir," Abies
. Canadian forestry journal. Forests and forestry -- Canada Periodicals. Canadian Forestry Journal, January, 1920. flaking a close survoy with calipors, on Uium:^ .\!uuiil:iin Forest Resfr\, .Man;: WHAT IS A "FIR" TREE, AND WHY? By F. W. H. Jacombe, , Otlalva. The use of the word "fir" in Great Britain differs widely from its use in North America. The prac- ice of foresters in Canada and the United States 5 to confine the term to the genus Abies (commonly cnown as "balsam" or "balsam fir," represented in Europe by the "silver fir," Abies pectinaia) and he Douglas fir (Pseudotsuga). In Europe, on the jther hand, the word "fir" is used in a general and ndefinite way which to a non-European is some- what bewildering. One reads of "fir," "silver iir," 'spruce fir," "Douglas fir," and even of "hemlock ;|)ruce ; Probably the ongm of the confusion is to be Found in the fact that the word "fir" (of Scandi- lavian origin and cognate with the Latin word 'quercus") was originally applied to the Scotch Pine (Pinus silvestris), the only indigenous conifer jf the British Isles. Some four centuries ago, the Norway Spruce was introduced from the continent, and was known as "spruce ; The word "spruce" Driginally was "pruce," and the meaning "Prus- sian;" consequently the expression "spruce fir" means nolhinp else than "Prussian ; Somehow ;he initial "s" became attached to the word, some :Iaim from the fact that from the shoots (sprossen) af the tree "sprossen bier" was made. Hence the Norway spruce (Picea excelsa) came to be known as "spruce fir," an expression finally shortened to ; (The origin of the expression "spruce up" is similar, possibly from a notion that certain representatives of the race were superior to most other people in
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