68 



The Hemlocks 



plish; the seeds are about 3 mm. long and provided with a few oil glands; the 

 broad based wing is two or three times the length of the seed. 



The wood is rather hard, tough, close-grained, and pale yellowish brown; its 

 specific gravity is about 0.51. It is the best of the American hemlocks, takes a 

 good polish, and is becoming more extensively used in carpentr}-. The bark is 

 rich in tannin, and in the Northwest furnishes the best tanning material. The 

 inner bark is also used by the Indians as a food; collected in the spring, they 

 beat it into a pulp, then bake it into hard cakes which are kept for winter use. 

 Although this magnificent tree has thrived well in Europe, it has failed in the 

 northeastern United States, probably due to the severe and frequent changes of 

 temperature in the winter. 



4. MOUNTAIN HEMLOCK Tsuga Mertensiana (Bongard) Carriere 

 Pinus Mertensiana Bongard. Tsuga Pattoniana (A. Murray) Senelacuze 



Also called Black hemlock, Patton's hemlock, Alpine spruce. Weeping spruce, 

 and Patton's spruce, occurs at high altitudes of the Sierra Nevada and Cascade 

 Mountains, from northern California and Nevada northward to southern Alaska; 



eastward it is found in 

 Idaho and Montana. Its 

 maximum height is 30 me- 

 ters, with a trunk diameter 

 of 3 meters, but above tim- 

 ber line on the higher 

 mountains it becomes a 

 straggling shrub. 



The branches are slen- 

 der, cun-ed, and pendent, 

 the branchlets drooping, 

 their tips often curved up- 

 ward, forming an open 

 conic tree. The bark of 

 old trees is 2.5 to 4 cm. 

 thick, deeply fissured, with 

 rounded ridges, which are 

 obliquely connected and 



Fig. 54. Mountain Hemlock. 



broken into close scales of a red to purplish brown color. The twigs are thin 

 and flexible or short and stiff, dependent upon whether it has grown in moist rich, 

 or dry sterile situations, ver}^ hair)-, bright red-brown, becoming roughened and 

 gray-brown with age. The winter buds arc less than 5 mm. long, sharp-pointed 

 and brown. The linear leaves are 12 to 20 mm. long, i mm. or less wide, scat- 

 tered, and spreading in all directions, entire, blunt-pointed, narrowed toward the 

 base, light blue-green and with stomata on both sides, convex above, rounded and 



