I. 2. THE HEMLOCK. 77 



I. 2. The Spruce. Abies. Jussieu. 



The hemlock and the spruce belong to a genus distinguished 

 from the pines in their general appearance, and by the follow- 

 ing particular differences : their leaves are solitary and very 

 short ; the male flowers are in solitary aments ; the cones are 

 pendulous, or dependent ; the scales of the cones are thin at 

 their edge ; the fruit comes to maturity in a single year. They 

 are evergreen, resinous trees, of an erect, pyramidal shape, 

 natives of Europe, Asia and America. 



Three species are found in Massachusetts : — 



1. The Hemlock has small, pointed, pendulous, terminal 

 cones, and thin, flat leaves ; 



2. The Black Spruce has dependent, egg-shaped cones, with 

 scales waved and jagged at the edge; 



3. The White Spruce has cones longer, also dependent, and 

 spindle-shaped, with scales smooth and entire at the edge. 



Both have four-angled, awl-shaped leaves. 



I. 2. Sp. 1. The Hemlock. Abies Canadensis. Michaux. 



Figured in Lambert's Pinus ; Plate 45. 



Michaux ; Sylva III, 149, and beautifully in 

 Loudon ; VIII, Plate 335, a, b. 



The hemlock spruce, or hemlock, as, throughout New Eng- 

 land, it is almost universally called, is the most beautiful tree 

 of the family. It is distinguished from all the other pines by the 

 softness and delicacy of its tufted foliage ; from the spruce by 

 its slender tapering branchlets, and the smoothness of its limbs ; 

 and from the balsam fir by its small terminal cones, by the 

 irregularity of its branches, and the gracefulness of its whole 

 appearance. 



The young trees, by their numerous irregular branches, 

 clothed with foliage of a delicate green, form a rich mass of 

 verdure ; and when, in the beginning of summer, each twig is 

 terminated with a tuft of yellowish-green recent leaves, sur- 

 mounting the darker green of the former year, the effect, as an 



