EVERGREEN TREES AND SHRUBS. 



549 



purity of color which distin- F^- '74- 



guishes a young hemlock tree, 

 it assumes with age a sombre 

 tone. This expression, how- 

 ever, is rarely acquired before 

 it is thirty to forty years old, 

 and may readily be counter- 

 acted by planting the Chinese 

 wistaria, Virginia creeper, or 

 trumpet creeper at its root. 

 These will speedily intermin- 

 gle the rich drapery of -their 

 lighter-colored foliage, and fall 

 like pendants from the highest boughs of the tree. 

 The following are varieties of our native hemlock : 

 LARGE-LEAVED HEMLOCK. A. c. macrophylla. This is distin- 

 guished in the nursery by larger leaves and denser growth than the 

 common hemlock, but whether it will exhibit peculiarities to render 

 it worthy a distinct name is a question to be determined by longer 

 cultivation. 



THE SLENDER-DWARF HEMLOCK. A. c. microphylla, or A. c. 

 gracilis. A small-leaved, slender-branched, very dwarf variety that 

 looks thin and uninteresting when young, but may possibly have 

 some value at maturity. 



PARSONS' DWARF HEM- 

 LOCK. Abies c. Parsoni. 

 This is a very pretty dwarf, 

 noticeable for the symmet- 

 rical out-curve of its slender 

 branches. 



SARGENT'S HEMLOCK. 

 Abies c. Sargenti. This bids 

 fair to be one of the most 

 curious and interesting ad- 

 ditions to our stock of gar- 

 denesque evergreens bear- 

 ing the same relation to the 



FIG. 175. 



