171. TSUGA PATTONIANA MOUNTAIN HEMLOCK. 51 



green. Flowers in very early spring, monoecious ; the sterile sub-globose 

 clusters of stamens from the axils of the leaves of the previous year, the stipes 

 surrounded by numerous bud-scales ; anthers tipped with a short spur or knob 

 and cells opening transversely by a continuous slit ; fertile aments terminal on 

 the branchlets of the previous year, erect, bracts somewhat shorter than the 

 scale. Fruit pendulous cones maturing the first year ; scales thin and persistent 

 on the axis ; bracts short, inclosed ; seeds with resin vesicles on the surface 

 and wing finally breaking off ; cotyledons three-five or six. 



Genus consists of trees of few species with slender and often drooping terminal 

 branchlets. Tsuga is the Japanese name of one of the representatives of the 

 genus, 



171. TSUGA PATTONIANA, ENGELM.* 



MOUNTAIN HEMLOCK, ALPINE HEMLOCK, PATTON'S HEMLOCK, WEEP- 

 ING SPRUCE. 

 Ger., Alpische Tanne; Fr., Peruche alpestre; Sp., Abeto alpino. 



SPECIFIC CHARACTERS: Leaves linear, scattered (not strictly two-ranked) 

 convex or keeled above, i to 1 in. in length, acutish at apex, narrowing at base 

 to a slender petiole, often curved, stomatose above and below, branchlets 

 slender, pubescent. Flowers, the staminate small, globose, clustered at the 

 ends of the branchlets, with very slender stipes and pollen grains bilobed. 

 Cones largest of the genus, two or three inches long, cylindrical-oblong, purple 

 until mature, then light brown, with numerous scales quite uniform in size, ^ 

 inch or less in width, thin, striated, and usually refiexed at maturity ; bracts 

 small, spatulate : seeds scarcely inch in length, angular, the wing about inch 

 long, obliquely obovate, widest above. 



Var. Hookeriana. of the alpine regions of the Cascade Range and eastward, is 

 a smaller pinnacle-shaped tree with shorter drooping branches and cones not 

 exceeding two inches in length and bearing less striated and less spreading scales. 



(Species named in compliment to Mr. Patton, a Scotch botanist.) 



The Alpine Hemlock occasionally attains the height of 100 feet 

 (30 m.) or more, with the trunk 3 or 4 ft. (1 m.) or exceptionally 10 

 or 12 ft. (3 m.) in diameter, vested in a rather thin, grayish-brown 

 bark checked longitudinally into loose, irregular, scaly ridges. Its 

 top is of a beautiful pyramidal shape, with long, horizontal lower 

 branches, while those above are successively shorter, incline at first 

 downward upon leaving the trunk., and then curve gracefully outward. 

 Add to this its' soft light-green foliage, interspersed with conspicuous 

 purple or brown cones, and we must declare it one of the handsomest 

 trees of its range. 



HABITAT. -- The high Alpine regions of the Sierra Nevada and the 

 Cascade Mountains, from the head-waters of the San Joaquin River, 

 at an altitude of 8,000 to 10,000 ft. northward into British Columbia, 

 where it is found at 2,000 or 3,000 ft. elevation; eastward into Idaho 

 and Montana. It grows along dry slopes and ridges near the limit of 

 tree growth. 



PHYSICAL PROPERTIES. Wood soft, light, close-grained, not 



*Hesperopeuce Pattoniana, Lemtnon, in Second Biennial Report of the California State Board of Forestry. 



