The Hemlock 117 



have all gone. The seeds are not more than an 

 eighth of an inch in length, but they have wings 

 which are twice that long. 



From light brown on the younger twigs and 

 a darker shade on the branches, hemlock bark 

 becomes reddish-brown in color on the tree- 

 trunks. There it is thick, and deeply cut by 

 narrow ridges. The brown wood, though light 

 and soft, is coarse-grained and brittle. Its odor 

 is unpleasant, and the wood is fit for little but 

 rough building lumber. It is not lasting when 

 exposed to the air. Yet the hemlock is a hand- 

 some tree in the forest; and though its wood 

 is of little value as lumber, the bark, for many 

 years, has furnished by far the greater part of 

 the material used for tanning leather, both in the 

 United States and Canada. And some of the wood 

 is now being made into pulp for newspapers. 



