468 TSTJGA MERTENSIANA. 



Biologiques " of the Imperial Academy of St. Petersburg in 1866. 

 Cones had, however, been brought from Japan by the late John 

 Gould Veitch in 1861 unfortunately mixed with cones of T. Sicloldii, 

 and both species were cultivated in the Veitchian nursery at Coombe 

 Wood for many years under the names of Abies Tsuga and A. Tsuga 

 nana ; J. G. Veitch, therefore, was not only the introducer of the 

 species but also, unknown to himself, the discoverer of it. Of the 

 two Hemlock Firs, natives of Japan, T. divcrsifolia is the northern 

 species and is abundant on the central mountains from Lake Umoto 

 northwards to Mount Hakkoda. 



" The great forest which covers the Nikko mountains at an altitude 

 of more than 5,000 feet above the ocean is composed almost entirely 

 of the northern Hemlock, Tsuga dicersifolia. This Hemlock forest, 

 which is the only forest in Hondo that seems to have been left 

 practically undisturbed by man, is the most beautiful which we saw 

 in Japan. The trees grow to a great size, and though they grow close- 

 together, they are less crowded than the trees in an American Hemlock 

 forest under which 110 other plant can grow, and light enough reaches 

 the forest floor to permit the growth of ferns, mosses and many 

 flowering nndershmbs which clothe the rocky slopes up which thi& 

 forest stretches. A most beautiful spot is the walk cut through this 

 forest along the shores of Lake Umoto." * 



Tsuga diversifolia is distinguished from T. Siebohlii by its darker- 

 red bark and more slender branchlets covered with reddish pubescence ; 

 by its shorter and narrower leaves of a darker green ; and especially 

 by its smaller cones, the scales of which are nearly as long as broad. 



Tsuga Mertensiana. 



An alpine tree of variable dimensions according to altitude and 

 environment, rarely exceeding 100 feet high with a trunk 5 7 feet 

 in diameter, with thick, cracked bark coming off in scales; at its 

 superior limit reduced to a low dense bush. In Great Britain an 

 elegant tree of slow growth ; trunk slender and tapering, bark reddish 

 brown fissured into square or oblong plates. Branches horizontal and 

 much ramified, the secondary branches lateral and rigid, from which 

 spring numerous branchlets, some lateral, but the greater number short 

 and erect ; bark of branchlets light brown obscurely fluted longitudinally 

 from the pulvini of the leaves downwards.! Buds numerous, terminal 

 and axillary, very small, ovoid-conic, light brown. Leaves persistent 

 several years, spirally crowded around the branchlets, spreading on all 

 sides on the erect shoots, pseudo-distichous on the horizontal ones ; 

 linear-obtuse with a distinct midrib, sometimes concave or subcymbiform 

 above ; keeled, with two glaucous stomatiferous bands beneath ; in 

 colour varying from dark lustrous green to greyish bine caused by 

 glancescence. Staimnate flowers cylindric-oblong, 0'4 inch long, on 



* Sargent, Forest Flora of Japan, p. 81. 



t At Murthly Castle, Perthshire, is a tree of Tsuga Mertensiana of more vigorous growth 

 than usual, in which the branches are elongated and depressed at an angle of about 45 to 

 the trunk. 



