Handbook of Treces of the IsTortheen States and Canada. 



33 



This rare tree is confined to the Blue Ridge 

 of the Alleglieny j\lts., ranging in altitude from 

 about 2000 to .^oOO ft., in company with the 

 common Hemlock. Wliite Pine, various Oaks, 

 Hickories, .Sugar Maple, Sour-wood, Silver- 

 bell Tree, etc., or occasionally forming quite 

 exclusive groves. It rarely e.vceeds 70 ft. in 

 height or 2 ft. in diameter of trunk, and has 

 rather compact pyramidal top and dark fur- 

 rowed bark of trunk. It is so often confined to 

 steep and almost inaccessible crags with roots 

 intertwined among the rocks that we are led 

 to infer that it alone is capable of maintain- 

 ing a foothold in such localities, and that the 

 other trees of the forest must have crowded it 

 out from places of easier footing. It is a tree 

 well wortliv of ornamental planting for which 

 it is occasionally employed. 



Its wood is very similar to that of the com- 

 mon Hemlock, a cu. ft. weighing 26.64 lbs., 

 and applicable to the same uses though not 

 abundant enough to be of commercial im- 

 portance.! 



Leaves flat, linear, %-% in. long, petiolate, 

 obtuse and often retiise at apex, lustrous dark 

 green and with conspicuous central groove above, 

 marked with white bands of 7 or 8 rows of 

 stomata on each side of the midrib beneath and 

 forming a flattish spra.v but not as flat as that of 

 the T. canadensis. Floircrs: staminate purplish ; 

 pistillate purple with broad ovate bracts about as 

 long as the scales. Cones oblong. 1-1 V- in. long 

 with short stalks and oblong oljtuse" fine but 

 scarcel.v wood.v i)iilioruI(jus scales! widely spreading 

 at maturity and ample l)riicts about half as long 

 as scales; seeds about one-sixth in. long with 

 large wing broadest near the base. 



1. A. W., XII, 299. 



