PINACE^E 



45 



at maturity, their bracts rather longer than wide, wedge-shaped, pale, nearly truncate or 

 slightly pointed at the broad apex; seeds |' long, with numerous small oil-vesicles on 

 the lower side, and one quarter as long as the pale lustrous wings broad or narrow at the 

 base and narrowed to the rounded apex. 



A tree, usually 40-50, or occasionally 70 high, with a trunk rarely exceeding 2 in 

 diameter, short stout often pendulous branches forming a handsome compact pyramidal 

 head, and slender light orange-brown pubescent branchlets, usually becoming glabrous 

 and dull brown more or less tinged with orange during their third year. Winter-buds 

 obtuse, dark chestnut-brown, pubescent, nearly ' long. Bark of the trunk f'-lj' thick, 

 red-brown, and deeply divided into broad flat connected ridges covered with thin closely 

 appressed plate-like scales. Wood light, soft, not strong, brittle, coarse-grained, pale 

 brown tinged with red, with thin nearly white sapwood. 



Distribution. Rocky banks of streams usually at elevations between 2500 and 3000 

 on the Blue Ridge from southwestern Virginia to northern Georgia, generally singly or in 

 small scattered groves of a few individuals. 



Occasionally planted as an ornamental tree in the northern states, and in western 

 Europe. 



3. Tsuga heterophylla Sarg. Hemlock. 



Leaves rounded at apex, conspicuously grooved, dark green and very lustrous on the 

 upper surface, marked below by broad white bands of 7-9 rows of stomata, abruptly 

 contracted at the base into slender petioles, l'-f long and TV- T V wide, mostly persistent 



Fig. 48 



4-7 years. Flowers: male yellow; female purple and puberulous, with broad bracts grad- 

 ually narrowed to an obtuse point and shorter than their broadly ovate slightly scarious 

 scales. Fruit oblong-ovoid, acute, sessile, f '-!' long, with slightly puberulous oval scales, 

 often abruptly narrowed near the middle, and dark purple puberulous bracts rounded 

 and abruptly contracted at apex; seeds |' long, furnished with occasional oil- vesicles, 

 one third to one half as long as their narrow wings. 



A tree, frequently 200 high, with a tall trunk 6-10 in diameter, and short slender 

 usually pendulous branches forming a narrow pyramidal head, and slender pale yellow- 

 brown branchlets ultimately becoming dark reddish brown, coated at first with long pale 

 hairs, and pubescent or puberulous for five or six years. Winter-buds ovoid, bright 

 chestnut-brown, about y 1 / long. Bark on young trunks thin, dark orange-brown, and 



