240 THE MAGAZINE OF HORTICULTURE. 



ametcr, until it tapers off suddenly, and forms a round 

 mass of foliage, projecting above the heads of the other trees 

 of the forest. Like the pines in the same situation, it is cov- 

 ered with dead branches, protruding from the trunk, and giv- 

 ing it a very unsightly look. These dead branches, when 

 the tree has been cut down, are often observed to extend 

 from the heartwood directly through the sapwoodof the trunk, 

 forming a hole as round as if it had been bored with an augur. 

 This appearance is caused by the continued growth of the 

 sapwood after the branch is dead, every year forming a little 

 circle round it, but not inosculating with its substance, as it 

 would, if the branch had not lost its vitality. 



We see the full beauty of the hemlock on the edges of 

 woods or outside of them, where it has had an opportunity 

 to expand and acquire its just proportions. In these situations 

 we discover that it is less formal in its shape than other trees 

 of the same genus. The branches of its summit being slen- 

 der and flexible, do not stand upright like the, lightning rod 

 of a spire ; they bend slightly over, and wave gracefully in 

 the breeze, in connection with the upper terminations of the 

 lateral branches, that nearly equal the central one in length. 

 Especially while the tree is young do we behold in it a dense 

 mass of glittering verdure to which that of but very few 

 other trees is comparable. 



The branches of the hemlock are exceedingly numerous, 

 and remarkable for their horizontal arrangement, and for the 

 absence of those regular whorls which characterize the other 

 species. They grow out irregularly from all parts of the 

 surface of the trunk, small in proportion, tending from their 

 horizontal position gracefully upwards, and waving gently in 

 the wind. Except at the extreme summit, the branches are 

 subdivided into minute branchlets, that form with them a flat 

 surface, like the tripinnate leaves of certain umbelliferous 

 plants. These branches sometimes lie one above another, 

 each bending down at the extremity upon the surface of the 

 one below, like the tiles on the roof of a house. It is easy 

 to mark in the foliage and spray of this tree a resemblance 

 to the Poison hemlock [Cicnta 7naadata), from which it prob- 

 ably derived its name. 



