THE HEMLOCK. 



THE Hemlock is confessedly one of the most beautiful 

 of the coniferous evergreens, though rather narrow in its 

 dimensions. The principal branches are small and short 

 with very slender terminations, in which it differs from all 

 the other spruces. The multitude of these slender sprays, 

 and their rows of soft delicate leaves, cause those beauti- 

 ful undulations that characterize the foliage of this tree 

 when moved by the wind. The leaves, of a light green on 

 their upper surface and of a silvery whiteness beneath, 

 are arranged in a row on each side of the branchlets. 

 But while those of the other spruces are sessile, those of the 

 Hemlock have slender footstalks, yielding them a slight 

 mobility. The spangled glitter of the foliage is caused by 

 a slightly tremulous motion of the terminal sprays. 



In a deep wood the Hemlock shows some very im- 

 portant defects. There it forms a shaft from fifty to 

 eighty feet in height without any diminution of its size, 

 until near the summit, where it tapers suddenly, forming a 

 head of foliage that projects considerably above the gen- 

 eral level of the forest. The trunk is covered with dead 

 branches projecting from it on all sides, causing it to wear 

 a very unsightly appearance ; and when the tree is sawed 

 into boards, they are found to extend directly through the 

 sapwood of the tree, making a hole in it as round as if it 

 were bored with an auger. This is caused by the con- 

 tinued growth of the trunk of the tree after the decay of 

 its branches, every year forming a new circle round the 

 branch, but not inosculating with it, as in other trees. 



