CHAP. CXI I/. coni'fer^. ^""biks. 2323 



spreading, but slender in proportion to their extent. The bark is light- 

 coloured and smooth, except on very old trees. The leaves are from a in. to 

 8 lines long, flat, mucronous, and disposed, though irregularly, in two ranks ; 

 and downy when young, and serrated, or rough, at their margins ; they are 

 of a very vivid light green, with two silvery stripes underneath. The male 

 flowers are few together, forming a small head on a long footstalk. The cones 

 are only a little longer than the leaves ; pendulous on the extremities of the 

 branches ; green when young, but becoming brownish when ripe ; the scales 

 are few, roundish, smooth, and entire on the margins. The seeds are very 

 small, and of a light brown, with the wings nearly white. (ATichx.) The full- 

 grown trees of the hemlock spruce, in England, have a rounder head, and a 

 more pendulous habit of growth, than is the case with any other fir, either 

 of America or Europe. Most of the largest specimens, also, such as the 

 original tree at Mill Hill, a large tree at Woburn Farm, one at Claremont, 

 and that at Strathfieldsaye, have forked trunks. When the tree is young, 

 the branches are quite, pendulous, and remarkably elegant. The rate of 

 growth, in the climate of London, is rather slow ; but plants,in 10 years, will 

 attain the height of 6 ft. or 8 ft. ; and in 20 years, of 15 ft. or 20 ft. The finest 

 specimens in the neighbourhood of London are those alluded to above, which 

 are from 50 ft. to 60 ft. in height ; and some trees at Whitton (of one of which 

 a portrait will be found in our last Volume), which are from .30 ft. to 50 ft. 

 in height, with trunks from 1 ft. 6 in. to 2 ft. in diameter. 



Geography and History. According to Pursh, the hemlock spruce is found 

 in the most northern regions of Canada, and on the highest mountains, as far 

 south as Carolina. Michaux says that it is a native of the coldest regions of 

 the New World, and that it begins to appear about Hudson's Bay. Near the 

 Lake St. John, and in the neighbourhood of Quebec, it fills the forests ; and in 

 Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, the district of Maine, the state of Vermont, 

 and the upper parts of New Hampshire, it forms three quarters of the ever- 

 green woods, of which the remainder consists of the black spruce. Farther 

 south, it is less common; and, in the middle and southern states, is seen 

 only on the Alleghanies ; and, even there, it is often confined to the sides of 

 torrents, and to the more humid and gloomy exposures. In the country east 

 and north of Massachusetts, which, without embracing Canada, is more than 

 750 miles long, by about 250 miles broad, these trees are constantly found at 

 the foot of the hills, and constitute nearly half the unbroken forests which 

 cover that extensive region. In this district moist soils appear unfavourable 

 to its growth ; but it attains a large size on soils proper for growing corn. 

 The hemlock spruce was introduced into England by Peter Collinson, about 

 the year 1736 ; and the original tree is probably that still standing in the grounds 

 at Mill Hill, where it has two trunks, each about 1 ft. in diameter, and 50 ft. high. 

 (See p. 57.) The tree is occasionally found, both in France and Germany, of 

 considerable size, and ripening its seeds. As seeds are annually imported, 

 and even produced by the old trees in this country, the plant is not scarce in 

 the nurseries. 



Properties and Uses. The wood of the hemlock spruce, according to Michaux, 

 is less valuable than that of any other of the large resinous trees of North 

 America ; but the bark is inestimable, in that country, for the purposes of the 

 tanner. It is esteemed an excellence in wood to split in a straight line, which 

 it does when the fibre is vertical : but that of the hemlock spruce is so oblique^ 

 that it makes the circuit of trunks 1 ft. 3 in. or I ft. 8 in. in diameter, in ascend- 

 ing 5 ft. or 6 ft. Besides this defect, which is general, and which renders it 

 unfit for rural fences, the old trees frequently have their concentric circles 

 separated at intervals, or, in the language of the country, are shaky, which 

 greatly impairs their strength. This effect is produced by the winds, which 

 have a powerful hold upon the large compact summit formed by the head 

 of the hemlock spruce, exposed, as it generally is, above the heads of the 

 surrounding trees. The wood is found to decay rapidly when exposed to 

 the atmosphere, and is therefore improper for the external covering of 



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