WESTERN HEMLOCK 205 



steel implements used in cutting and working it. Now, add 

 to all this the further fact that natural reforestation can 

 stand no chance whatever with seed trees gone, and that in 

 nearly every situation in which it thrives better species, 

 such as the Pines, will grow more rapidly and produce more 

 and better lumber, and it can be readily seen that efforts 

 to cultivate the tree for timber would not be advisable. As 

 a timber tree it must hereafter be relegated to areas where 

 it can, with a scant number of seed trees, maintain itself 

 by natural reproduction, coupled with adverse surroundings. 

 It is a slow grower in early life as well as in old age, and 

 quite a prolific seeder. 



As an ornamental tree it has no equal among the coni- 

 ferous evergreens. The late A. J. Downing, the father of 

 landscape gardening in America, pronounced it the most 

 picturesque and beautiful of all the evergreens in the world, 

 and he was undoubtedly correct. In the open, its crown 

 grows a dense cone with limbs from the ground up, its 

 terminal sprays drooping gracefully and in early summer 

 tipped with the new yellow leaves, which show like blos- 

 soms all over the tree, the dark background of leaves of 

 former years' growth furnishing a harmonious but contrast- 

 ing setting. As it grows old, the lower limbs begin to die, 

 although the tree is quite tolerant of shade. It has been a 

 valuable tree and is to-day, but when the question of repro- 

 duction is to be determined, it must give way to better spe- 

 cies and those that can be much more easily and profitably 

 propagated. 



WESTERN HEMLOCK 



THE Western species is commonly called " Hemlock," 

 and its botanical designation is Tsuga heterophylla. Its 

 range is along the Canadian line from the Pacific Coast 

 east to Montana and south along the Cascade Mountains 

 to northern California, at elevations varying from close to 

 sea level to five thousand feet above. Its best development is 

 in western Washington and Oregon, where it attains a height 



