CHAPTER VIII: THE HEMLOCKS 



Genus TSUGA, Carr. 



Tall, graceful trees of pyramidal form, with flexible tip 

 shoots and pendulous, much-divided horizontal limbs. Leaves 

 evergreen, petioled, flat and 2-ranked (except one). Flowers 

 monoecious, solitary, in early spring. Fruit annual cones, small 

 and oval (except one), with thin, entire scales. IVood soft, pale, 

 cross-grained, stiff. 



KEY TO SPECIES 



A. Leaves flat, 2-ranked, pale beneath; cones about i inch 

 long, oval. 

 B. Cones stalked. 



C. Scales as wide as long, not flaring at maturity. 



(7. Canadensis) hemlock 

 CC. Scales longer than wide, flaring at maturity. 



(7. Caroliniana) Carolina hemlock 

 BB. Cones sessile, scales constricted in middle. 



{T. heierophylla) western hemlock 

 AA. Leaves 3-angled, whorled, pale blue-green; cones 2 to 3 

 inches long, oblong-cylindrical. 



{T. Mertensiana) mountain hemlock 



Hemlocks are distinctly graceful and symmetrical trees, 

 Japan has two native species, the Himalayas one, our Eastern 

 States one, the Western States three — seven in all — and Tsuga 

 is the Japanese name for hemlock. The prostrate, shrubby 

 "ground hemlock," familiar to many of us who have eaten its 

 aromatic scarlet berry, is not a hemlock but a yew. The hem- 

 lock that Socrates drank was the deadly infusion of an herb, 

 Coniuni maculatum, related to our wild carrot. 



The best character by which to recognise the hemlocks is 

 the tiny petiole of the leaf. No other cone bearer has leaf stalks. 

 Of our native species, all have white lines on the under side of each 

 leaf; the mountain hemlock has them above and below. The 



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