60 



SILVA OF NORTH AMERICA. 



CONIFER-iE. 



in falling bearing away portions of the membranaceous lining of the scale forming obovate-oblong 

 ■wing-like attachments longer than the seeds and nearly surrounding them 5 testa of two coats, the 

 outer crustaceous, light brown, the inner membranaceous, pale chestnut-brown and lustrous. Embryo 

 axile in conspicuous fleshy albumen ; cotyledons from three to six, stomatiferous on the upper surface, 

 much shorter than the inferior radicle.^ 



The genus Tsuga is now confined to temperate North America and to eastern and southern 

 Asia, seven species being distinguished. In North America two species occur in the eastern part of 

 the continent and two in the western ; in Japan Tsuga diversifolia ^ forms forests at high elevations 

 in central and northern Hondo, and Tsuga Araragi^ is scattered over the southern mountains; and 

 over the high inner ranges of the eastern Himalayas Tsuga dumosa^ is widely distributed. The 



1 The species of Tsuga may be grouped in two sections : — 

 MiCROPEUCE (Spach, Hist. Veg. xi. 424 [1842]. — Eutsuga, 



Engelmann, Brewer §■ Watson Bot. CaL ii. 120 [1880]), Leaves 

 flat, obtuse, stomatiferous only on the lower surface, appearing 

 two-ranked by the twisting of their petioles, of two lengths j 

 cones ovate-oblong, fertile scales few. 



Hespekopeuce, Engelmann, l. c. 121 (1880). Leaves rounded 

 or keeled above, acute, stomatiferous on both surfaces, their 

 petioles slightly or not at all twisted ; cones oblong-cylindrical, 

 fertile scales numerous. 



2 Masters, Jour. Linn. Soc. xviii. 514 (Conifers oj Japan) (1881); 

 Jour. R. Hort. Soc. xiv. 255. — Mayr, Monog. Abiet Jap. 61, t. 4, 

 f . 13. — Beissner, Handh. Nadelh. 396. — Koehne, Deutsche Dendr. 

 11, — Sargent, Garden and Forest, x. 491, f. 63.~ 



Abies diversifolia, Maximowicz, BulL Acad.. Sci. St. Petersbourg, 

 xii. 229 (1868) (Mel. Biol. vi. 373). — Franchet & Savatier, 

 Enum. PI. Jap. i. 468. 



Tsuga diversifolia is a tree seventy or eighty feet in height, 

 with a short trunk often three or four feet in diameter, dark 

 red deeply furrowed bark, very slender brauchlets covered with 

 rufous pubescence, short narrow emarginate leaves, and cones, 

 which are rarely more than half an inch in length. On the Nikko 

 and other high mountains of central Japan, it is the principal tree 

 in great forests which extend from elevations of about five thou- 

 sand feet above the level of the sea nearly to the upper limits of 

 tree-growth, its most northerly home in Japan being on the moun- 

 tains which surround the Bay of Aomori. (See Sargent, Forest 

 Fl. Jap. 81, t. 25.) The Hemlock found by Br. Augustine Henry 

 in the province of Hupeb in central China (No. 6907), although 

 its leaves are rather longer, seems to be of this species. The 

 woods produced by the two Japanese Hemlocks, which do not 

 appear to be distinguished in commerce, are said to be hard, 

 tough, and valuable. They are used only in the construction of 

 expensive houses, and the remoteness and inaccessibility of the 

 region where these trees grow make the transport of their wood 

 difficult and expensive (Dupont, Essences Forestieres du Japouy 



17). 



Tsuga diversifolia was discovered in 1860 on the slopes of Mt. 

 Fugi-san by Mr. J. G. Veitch, the companion of Sir Butherford 

 Alcock in the first ascent of that mountain made by Europeans, 

 although it was not distinguished from the other Japanese Hemlock 

 until seven years later, (See J. G. Veitch, in Alcock, The Capital 

 of the Tycoon, ii. Appx. E. 483.) Less commonly cultivated in the 

 gardens of the United States and Europe than T. Araragi, it has 

 proved perfectly hardy in New England, where, although still 

 shrubby in habit, it has produced abundant crops of cones. 



» Koehne, h c. 10 (1893). — Sargent, Garden and Forest, x. 

 491, f. 62. 



Mas- 



Pinus Araragi, Siebold, Verhand. Batav. Genoot. Konst. Wet. 

 xii. 12 (1830). 



Abies Tsuga, Siebold & Zuccarini, F7. Jap. ii. 14, t. 106 

 (1842). — Gordon, Pinefum, 19. — Lindley, Gard. Chron. 1861, 

 23. — A. Murray, The Pines and Firs of Japan, 84, f. 159-171. — 

 Maximowicz, I. c. 230 (/. c. 374). — Miquel, Ann. Mus. Bot. 

 Lugd. Bat. iii. 167 (Prol. Fl. Jap.). — Franchet & Savatier, I. c. 

 468. 



Abies Araragi, Loudon, Encycl. of Trees, 1036 (1842). — K. 

 Koch, Dendr. ii. pt. ii, 249. 



Pinus Tsuga, Antoine, Conif. 83, t. 32, f. 2 (1840-^7).— 

 Endlicher, Syn. Conif 83. — Parlatore, De CandoUe Prodr. xvi, 

 pt. ii. 428. 



Tsuga Sieboldii, Carri^re, Traiie Conif 186 (1855). — 

 ters, Jour. Linn. Soc. xviii. 512 (Conifers of Japan). — Beissner, 

 I c. 394 f. 106. 



Tsuga Tsuja, A. Murray, Proc. R. Hort. Soc. ii. 508, f . 141-153 

 (1862). 



Picea (Tsuga) Sieboldii, Bertrand, Ann. Sci. Nat. s4r. 5, xx. 89 

 (1874). 



Pinus Sieboldii, W. K. M'Kab, Proc. R. Irish Acad. ser. 2, ii. 

 213, t. 23, f. 6 (1875). 



A species of more southern range and of lower elevations than 

 Tsuga diversifolia, the second Japanese Hemlock, Tsuga Araragi, 

 is found on the mountains of south central Hondo, usually in 

 small scattered groves among deciduous-leaved trees or mixed 

 with the Mountain Pine, Pinus densifora. It is a beautiful tree, 

 from sixty to eighty feet in height, with a trunk usually not more 

 than two feet in diameter, covered with pale bark, drooping 

 branches, lustrous orange-brown glabrous branchless, leaves longer, 

 broader, and more lustrous than those of Tsuga diversifolia, and 

 cones nearly an inch in length. Introduced into Europe in 1853 

 by Von Siebold, it is occasionally found in European collections, 

 appearing, however, less successful in them than in the eastern 

 United States, where this Hemlock is one of the most graceful and 

 satisfactory of the exotic conifers cultivated in American gardens, 

 and where it promises to grow to a large size. 



A dwarf bushy form of this tree with short branches and shorter 

 and more crowded leaves, found by Von Siebold in Japanese gar- 

 dens, has been introduced into those of the United States and 

 Europe. It is 



Tsuga Araragi, var. nana. 

 Pinus Tsuga, B nana, Endlicher, I. c. (1847). — Parlatore, I. c. 

 Tsuga Sieholdiif B nana, Carri^re, I. c. (1855). — Beissner, I. c. 

 395. 

 Abies Tsuga nana, Gordon, I. c. Suppl. 13 (1862), 



r 



* Tsuga dumosa. 

 ^ Pinus dumosa, D. Don, Prodr. Fl. Nepal. 55 (1825). — Lam- 



