Conclusion — Although it was realized by many of the recorders that three different species of spruce occurred on Prince Edward Island, there is little attempt to differentiate between them in the early records. In overall terms the genus seems to have been abundant and widespread with each of the three species occurring in particular habitats and forest-types, both climax and successional. White spruce comprised the forests on coastal cliffs and banks and occurred as a successional tree on abandoned farmland. The red was a minor component in upland hardwood forests and also in rich swamps. The black predominated on poorer soils both wet and dry, and in its poorest form it occurred as thick scrub woodland in poor swamps and barrens. We are given only a few examples of where the larger black spruce trees that are reported in the literature, occurred. Spruces (presumably any of the three species, depending on the site), were important elements in the succession after fire as well as after tree-cutting. The timber of the larger trees, especially the black, was used for masts and spars, and there were other minor uses for the wood.

BALSAM FIR (Abies balsamea)

Identification and nomenclature The single species of fir that occurs on Prince Edward Island presented the problem, as noted above, that it had a superficial similarity to the island's spruce species, though the two genera are in fact readily distinguished from each other by anyone taking the time to examine them carefully. Usually the tree is called simply the ’fir’ by recorders, though by the late nineteenth century the name ’balsam fir’ or ‘balsam’ was being used (Table 1-3). Another name for the tree that appears to have

been in common use on the island is ‘var’196.

John Cambridge appears to have thought that there were ”two or three kinds of fir" on the island, and since he already has the three spruces and all of the other conifers in his list, he must be

‘96 ‘Var' is a dialectical variant of the word ‘fir‘ and is classed by

the Oxford English Dictionary (1989) as a Canadianism. The name was used by Johnstone (1822), Sutherland (1861), Crosskill (1904) and Mollison (1905), and Samuel Ramsay of Lot 13 in giving evidence to the Land Commission of 1875. Both Sutherland and Mollison indicate that it was called such on the island, and according to Pratt (1988), var is still commonly used for fir on the island today. The name “silver fir‘, given in brackets after var by Johnstone (1822), rather than being a name used on the island, seems to have been intended for his Scottish readership, who could equate the island‘s fir with the silver fir (Abies alba) of Europe. (Selkirk (1803) made the same comparison in his own notes)

173

referring to the fir genus.197 There are also a few

instances of the use of the name ’fir’ for conifers in general“, and it is thus necessary that each use of the name be assessed individually, since it can be ’mis-applied’ to spruce and other conifers.199

General distribution and abundance — The fact that fir appears in only twenty—four of the thirty-five possible tree lists (Table 1-3)2°° suggests that in the early period it was not as abundant as many other trees on the island, and notably less so than the spruces. It is listed as a ’principal’ or ’chief’ tree by only three of the list-makersm‘. It, however, has a moderately high report rate in the tree tally (Table 1-1), though all but one of these records occur after 1820. The only other comment on its abundance on the island is that of Crosskill (1904) at the beginning of the twentieth century, who noted that, along with spruce, it was one of the ”commonest” trees on the island.

Specific areas — ’Fir’ was recorded at a number of specific places on the island (Figure 1-3). In chronological order these were: on the eastern part

of Lot 132”; in the Charlottetown aream; in the in Lot

2°" at Low Point in

New London Bay area , 13205; in Lot 15 ”westward of Fifteen Point"2°5; Lot 17: in the isthmus between Bedeque and

‘97 [Cambridge] 1796?. However. the “several varieties of fir" of

Bouchette (1832) is a mis-interpretation of the “four varieties of spruce-fir” [i.e. spruce] of MacGregor (1828), whom Bouchette used as his source.

‘98 An example is clearly Cobbett (1829) who uses the term ‘fir’ collectively for all conifer species. Note also Hill’s (1839) similar use ofthe name in the phrase “larger species of the fir tribe".

‘99 For instances of such, see footnotes 197, 198, 203, 214 and 219).

20° For the remaining two lists, [Bain] (1882) lists only the broad- Ieaved species, while the page of Watson (post 1904) that would have contained fir is missing,

2‘” Murray (1839) and Monro (1855), neither of whom appear to have had any first-hand experience of the island, note it as a ‘principal‘ tree, while an anonymous travel-writer (Anon. 1877) noted it as one ofthe ‘chief‘ trees.

202 Morris 1769.

203 It would seem to be included in Patterson’s (1770) statement:

“Spruce and several other sorts of small Firrs".

2°“ Chappell 1775-1818. Chappell worked with fir wood in 1775, 1776 and 1778. The fir that he used in 1775 may have come from “the french River" (see the 15 May entry in his daybook). Also, [Lawson] (1877-1878) retrospectively noted fir as a component of the forest in the New London area at the time of settlement.

205 Gesner 1846.