128 TSUGA, OR HEMLOCK SPRUCE FIRS 



branches of the Hemlock jut out irregularly 

 from all sides of its trunk the branches of 

 the Silver Fir are regularly whorled — that 

 is to say, shaped after the Radiata outline 

 of a starfish arranged round a central axis, 

 or the spokes of a cart-wheel laid upon 

 the ground. The leaves of the Silver Fir 

 are notched at the apex, those of the 

 Hemlock are not. The cones of the Silver 

 Fir are upright and large, those of the 

 Hemlock pendulous and small, and so ad 

 infinitum. 



Then there is the question of the Yew. The leaves 

 may be arranged similarly, and there begins and ends 

 any similitude. Its leaves are much longer than the 

 Hemlock's. Underneath them the colour is yellow- 

 green, showing no white stomata bands as do the 

 Hemlock's. The twigs of the Yew are yellow-green 

 and smooth, those of the Hemlock large and downy. 

 Thus is disposed of any hint of relationship between 

 the two, without even trenching on the subject of 

 the wide difference of their fruits. 



All these little disquisitions on obvious differences 

 may read to some like a return to the more primal 

 ways of nursery life, but it must be admitted in equal 

 fairness that infants must walk before they run, 

 and that the lower rungs of the ladder of knowledge 

 must first be trod before the heights can be scaled. 



SPECIES AND VARIETIES OF HEMLOCK 

 SPRUCE FIRS 



Where the hemlocks grew so dark 

 That I stopped to look and hark, 



Whittier. 



The list of Hemlock Spruces in cultivation in Great 

 Britain consists of seven species, to which we have 



