466 TSUGA CAROLIN1AXA. 



In the earlier stages of growth and up to about forty years of age 

 it is a beautiful tree of pyramidal habit owing to the .uniform disposition 

 of its branches which are usually well furnished with drooping 

 branchlets. At an older stage the trunk often becomes forkecl or 

 much divided, and the growth of the branches irregular ; the top takes 

 a flat or rounded form much like that of an old Cedar of Lebanon. 

 It thrives in elevated airy situations where the soil is retentive, also 

 by the side of streams, or in proximity to lakes and ponds where the 

 roots have access to the water. 



Several varieties of the Hemlock Spruce are described by continental 

 authors, most of which are probably unknown in British gardens. Of 

 the four here admitted Saryentiana is the most remarkable deviation 

 from the type ; it was originally found on the Fishkill mountains in 

 the State of New York, and was first cultivated by Mr. H. W. Sargent 

 whence it obtained in America the name of Sargent's Hemlock Fir.* 



Tsuga caroliniana. 



A low or medium-sized tree 50 60 feet high with a trunk rarely 

 exceeding 2 feet in diameter. Bark of branchlets pale reddish brown, 

 slightly rugose and striated; ramification distichous or pseudo-distichous 



Fig. 116. Fertile branchlet of Tsuga carolinic.m'.. 



with numerous short erect branchlets on the upper, and here and there 

 a longer one 011 the under side of the axial growths ; the youngest 

 shoots light reddish brown marked with cortical outgrowths that 

 terminate at the base of the leaves in an enlarged reddish pulvinus. 

 Leaves persistent two three years, shortly petiolate, linear, sub-acute or 

 obtuse, 0*25 0'75 inch long, dark lustrous green with a narrow median 

 groove above, . with a pale keel and stomatiferous band on each side 

 of it beneath. Cones lateral or terminal on short lateral branchlets, 

 ovoid or elliptic-ovoid, composed of twenty twenty-five elliptic-oblong 

 scales arranged in five six series, striated on the exposed side. Seed- 

 wing oblong, half as long as the scale. 



* Garden and Forest, Vol. X. p. 491. 



