AMERICAN FOREST TREES 



distribution of seeds is often facilitated by the activities of red squirrels, 

 and perhaps other small mammals, which climb the trees in winter and 

 tear the cones apart to get at the seeds. Many of the seeds are devoured, 

 but more escape and fly away on the winter winds. 



Hemlock leaves are narrow and about half an inch long. Examin- 

 ed closely, particularly with a magnifying glass, rows of white dots extend 

 from end to end on the under side. Small as these white points are 

 separately, when seen in the aggregate they change the color of the whole 

 crown of the tree. This is illustrated by looking at a hemlock from a 

 distance the upper sides of the leaves on the drooping twigs being then 

 visible and the tree's aspect dark green. Approach the tree, and 

 look up from its base the under side of the leaves being then visible 

 and the dark color changes to a light silvery tint. The whiteness is due 

 to the white spots on the leaves. The spots are stomata (mouths), and 

 are parts of the chemical laboratory which carriers on the tree's living 

 processes. All tree leaves have stomata, but all are not arranged in the 

 same way and are not visible alike. Few trees have them as prominent 

 as the hemlocks. 



Hemlock attains a height from sixty to 100 feet and a diameter 

 from two to four. When it grows in the open, it is one of the handsom- 

 est and most symmetrical evergreens of any country. Its dark, dense 

 foliage will permit scarcely any sunlight to filter through. When forest- 

 grown, it loses its lower limbs. In the forester's language, they are 

 "shaded off," and long, smooth trunks are developed; but the stubs 

 from which the branches fall remain buried deep inside the smoothest bole, 

 and the saws will find them when the logs are converted into lumber. 



Reference has been made to hemlock's slow growth during the 

 seedling's first four or five years. That takes place in the dense shade of 

 the hemlock forest. If the seed falls on open ground, in full sunlight, 

 the chance is that it will not germinate; but if it does, the seedling is 

 doomed to an early death. It cannot endure strong light. This fact is 

 of great importance, for it means the end of hemlock forests. When a 

 stand is cut and the sunshine reaches the ground, no seedlings bring on a 

 new forest. White pine seeds grow in open ground, in old fields, in 

 burnt woods, wherever they reach soil, but hemlock must scatter its 

 seeds in cool, deep shade or they will do little good. Strong, vigorous, 

 and healthy as hemlock trees are, they are killed more easily than 

 almost any other. Cut a few trees from the center of a mature hemlock 

 clump, and the chance is that several trees next to the open space thus 

 made will die. The unusual light proves too much for their roots which 

 had always been cool and damp ; but when young hemlocks are protected 

 until they get a start, they thrive nicely in the open. 



