72 THE FLORIST. 



DESCRIPTIVE LIST OF HARDY CONIFERS. No. III. 



I. ABIES CANADENSIS THE HEMLOCK SPRUCE. 



The accompanying engraving represents a nearly full-grown tree of 

 the Hemlock Spruce growing in the woods at Bowood, the residence 

 of the Marquis of Lansdowne. We have selected the Hemlock 

 Spruce for our present illustration, as we venture to think sufficient 

 justice has not been done to its merits as an ornamental tree ; for 

 although it has been introduced to English gardens for more than a 

 century, we rarely see it, even in situations where its graceful habit 

 and feathery foliage would render it an essential assistant to the 

 landscape planter. For, in opposition to the general habit of coni- 

 ferous plants, which more or less assume the spiral form, the Hem- 

 lock Spruce may be considered a round-headed tree ; and as such 

 may be introduced, not only to break up groups of spiral-headed 

 evergreen trees, but planted in the foreground of plantations or 

 masses, its peculiar character is brought out ; and it is in such 

 situations, or as a single specimen, where its light, feathery spray 

 can sweep the ground, that it is seen to most advantage. 



The Hemlock Spruce is indigenous to the northern part of the 

 American continent, from Hudson's Bay (where it forms a low 

 scrubby bush) to Carolina. In Canada, Nova Scotia, and the older 

 settlements of North America, it forms large forests, and is the tree 

 most commonly met Avith, conjointly with the Black Spruce. It does 

 not appear, however, to be a mountain tree ; but seems to delight in 

 sheltered situations at the foot of higher grounds, where the atmo- 

 sphere is somewhat damp, and in which it attains its greatest size. 

 But the tree does not confine itself to such localities, for it occupies 

 an immense space of the sandy flats so common to North America ; 

 but refuses to thrive, both in America and in this country, on a soil 

 positively wet. 



In America, trees are frequently met with 100 feet in height, 

 with trunks of corresponding size. The plant engraved is 70 feet 

 high, with a trunk measuring 8 feet 6 inches in circumference at 

 three feet from the ground. From being overcrowded with other 

 trees, it is not so thickly set with foliage as it would otherwise have 

 been, and which is found to be the case wherever the tree has room 

 for its branches to extend under full exposure to light. 



When planted thickly, and generally on its native soil, the tree 

 rises with a straight trunk ; but when planted singly, it frequently 

 becomes forked, which, after a certain height, again divides into 

 several branches (as our cut shows). This, in young trees, should 

 be prevented by timely removing such, and helping the tree to keep 

 to a single stem. The branches are numerous and slender, and 

 thickly clothed with neat, small leaves of a deep green colour, re- 

 lieved by a stripe of white on the under side. In its young state, 

 the Hemlock Spruce is noted for its pendulous habit, the ends of the 

 branches and lateral shoots drooping, so as to form (as Loudon 

 observes), a kind of evergreen weeping willow. As the plant, how- 



