10 THE PIxNE FAMILY. 



in the South. When growing in the open Picea Mariana is usually an im- 

 posing spectacle, especially when its boughs extend to the ground. In 

 swamps and bogs, or other moist soil it is found while it attains to its best 

 development in high altitudes. In the northern states the pale red timber of 

 the black spruce is used in ship building. Long ago, also, the Indians taught 

 the Europeans to boil the young twigs with honey and use the extract in a 

 brew which produces spruce beer. 



CAROLINA HEMLOCK. {Plate II) 

 Tsiiga Ca7'oliniana. 



FAMILY SHAPE HEIGHT RANGE TIME OF BLOOM 



Pine. Pyraviidal. ■20-^0 feet. Virginia to northern Georgia. April, iMay. 



Bark: reddish, or grey; scaly, and becoming more rough and furrowed with 

 age. Twigs: brownish, or grey; pubescent; lower branches, pendulous. Leaves : 

 about one half inch long; scattered along the branchlets; needle-shaped with tiny 

 petioles; blunt at the apex, flat, grooved on the upper side, entire, glabrous above 

 and covered with a white bloom underneath; persistent. Cones : one to one and 

 a half inches long; solitary; drooping at, or near the ends of the branchlets; ovate- 

 oblong. Scales: ovate, rounded at the apex, widely divergent. Wings : long, nar- 

 row. 



Along the Blue Ridge Mountains in groves and on the sides of the steep 

 ravines, which contribute so much to the rugged effect of their unusual 

 scenery, there is found not infrequently the Carolina hemlock. At Cassar's 

 Head, an outlying and elevated spur in Greenville County, S. C, I first saw 

 it growing. It appeared a most beautiful tree with so full and brilliant a 

 spray that it quickly attracted the attention. 



T. Ca7iadensis, common hemlock, or spruce pine, attains in the moun- 

 tain ravines to the very fulness of development. Its tall, collumlar trunk, 

 sometimes one hundred feet high, and its wide-spreading, declined branches 

 produce a strong and light, fern-like effect among the other abundant and 

 heavier foliage. The leaves it bears are smaller than those of the preceding 

 species, as are also the scales of its cones. These latter do not diverge 

 very widely when the seeds are ripe and anxious to effect an escape. Both 

 of the hemlocks have a lithe, fine beauty, but as this one grows through 

 the Alleghanies, it attains such splendid proportions and has so dignified an 

 air that it appeared to me to be quite unrivalled by any of the other coniferous 

 trees. Its frequent companion is Magnolia Fraseri. Should, however, 

 two hemlocks of equal size be placed together, the verdict would probably 

 be given to the Carolina one as being the more beautiful. 



The common hemlock appears to be well known by the mountain people 

 who take some pride in their acquaintance with it. They ascribe to it the 

 merit of revealing the points of the compass by leaning always its top to 

 the east. Few of them could tell me anything concerning the uses of its 

 timber, all declaring that they hadn't "heard on anything." Through their 



