550 EVERGREEN TREES AND SHRUBS. 



common hemlock that the weeping beech does to the common beech. 

 It is of an eccentric rambling nature, but well clothed with verdure. 

 Grown without training it will probably be a broad, irregular, flat- 

 headed tree or great bush, with an overlaying of downward growing 

 branches like that of the Scamston elm. By grafting it well up 

 on other trees, or by tying its leader to a stick or stake, we believe 

 it will be one of the prettiest and most picturesque of evergreens. 

 The best effect will be produced when grafted well up on an 

 ordinary hemlock stem. The tree was brought into notice by H. 

 W. Sargent, Esq., who found it growing wild on Fishkill mountain. 



THE JAPAN HEMLOCK SPRUCE. Abies tsuga. This species, 

 which is a great favorite in Japanese gardens, seems scarcely known 

 yet in this country. On the mountains near Yeddo it is a lofty 

 tree, while in gardens it is grown in pots and boxes to any size 

 that the gardeners desire. There is also a variety that is dwarf by 

 nature. 



THE CALIFORNIA HEMLOCK. Abies mertensiana. Abies eanaden- 

 sis taxifolia. This is described in Gordon's Pinetum as "A hand- 

 some, bushy, round-headed tree, growing from one hundred to one 

 hundred and fifty feet high, and from four to six feet in diameter, 

 with a straight round stem, etc. It is quite hardy, and resembles in 

 general appearance the hemlock spruce." * * "It is found in 

 Oregon and Northern California, where it constitutes one-half the 

 timber in the neighborhood." Probably only a grosser variety of 

 our native hemlock. 



THE SILVER FIRS. Picea. 



The difference between the spruce fir family and the silver firs, 

 aside from their botanical traits, may be briefly mentioned as 

 follows : 



The silver firs have a more rigid horizontality of branches, and 

 the stratification of their foliage is usually more marked and formal. 

 In general outlines the two families differ but little, but the rigidity 



