DENDROLOGY. 97 



woods. Farther south it is less common, and in the Middle and 

 Southern States is seldom seen except on the Alleghanies ; even 

 there it is often confined to the sides of the torrents and to the most 

 humid and gloomy exposures. Moist grounds appear hot to be 

 in general the most favorable to its growth. It flourishes best 

 in a sandy loam at the foot of hills where corn will thrive. 



The hemlock spruce arrives at the height of 70 or 80 feet, 

 with a circumference of 6 or 9 feet, and uniform for two thirds of 

 its length. In a favorable soil it has an elegant appearance while 

 less than 30 feet high, owing to the symmetrical arrangement of 

 its branches and to its tufted foliage, and at this age it is employed 

 in landscape gardening. When arrived at its full growth, the 

 large limbs are usually broken off 4 or 5 feet from the trunk, by 

 the weight of snows, and the dried extremities are seen starting 

 out through the little twigs which spring around them. In this 

 mutilated state, by which it is easily recognized, it has a disa- 

 greeable aspect, and presents, while in full vigor, an image of 

 decrepitude. The bark is of a grayish color when young, but 

 grows lighter when old, generally covered with moss. The 

 leaves are 6 or 8 lines long, flat, numerous, irregularly disposed 

 in two ranks, and downy at their unfolding. It flowers in May, 

 and is succeeded by cones of an ash-colored bay, which are a little 

 longer than the leaves, oval, pendulous, and situated at the 

 extremity of the branches. Its seed comes to maturity about 

 the end'of autumn. 



Unhappily the properties of its wood are such as to give this 

 species only a secondary importance, notwithstanding its abundant 

 diffusion : it is tire least valuable in this respect of all the large 

 resinous trees of North America. But the regret which we should 

 experience to see it occupying so extensively the place of more 

 useful species, is forbidden by a property of its bark inestimable 

 to the country where it grows, that of being applicable in tanning. 

 The wood is found to decay rapidly when exposed to the 

 vicissitudes of the weather, and is therefore improper for the 

 external covering of houses. But as the white pine becomes 

 rarer this species is substituted for it as extensively as possible : it 

 is firmer, though coarser grained, affords a tighter hold to nails, 



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