274 FAMILIAR TREES AND THEIR LEAVES. 



Hemlock Cones. 



spring the newer ones are light yellow green. There 

 is no phase of tree life more beautiful than that pre- 

 sented by the hem- 

 lock clothed in its 

 springtime garb ; 

 the tips of the 

 dark - green sprays 

 are painted in yel- 

 low - green, with a 

 fairylike daintiness, the effect of which could only 

 be conveyed to the mind by a careful study in color. 



But a young, full-foliaged hemlock on the edge 

 of the pasture is a very different character from the 

 dark and gloomy tree in the forest shades ; here, its 

 straight stem, with few or no lower branches, rises to 

 a height of from 50 to 80 feet. 



The tiny cones are oval, thin-scaled, and, when 

 young, tan-color. They are scarcely over half an 

 inch long, and depend from the lower side of the 

 branchlet ; the tiny winged seed will be seen en- 

 larged in my drawing at A. This tree abounds in 

 the rocky woods of the North ; it extends from 

 Maine to Delaware, and follows the Alleghany 

 Mountains southward to Alabama ; westward it finds 

 its limit in Minnesota. 



The bark of the hemlock is largely used for tan- 

 ning leather, and I am sorry to say that in the White 



