238 TREES IN WINTER 



HEMLOCK 

 Hemlock Spruce. 



Tsuga canadensis (L.) Carr. 



HABIT — A large tree 50-80 ft. in height, with a trunk diameter of 

 2-4 ft.; branches long, slender, horizontal or drooping at base, ascend- 

 ing above, forming a broad-based pyramidal head with fine feathery 

 spray giving a delicate airy appearance to the tree. The apex is plume- 

 like and generally bent to one side indicating, so woodsmen claim, the 

 direction of prevailing winds. 



BARK — Reddish to grayish-brown, with shallow broad connecting 

 ridges somewhat scaly on the surface, 



TWIGS — Slender, yellowish-brown, more or less downy, branchlets 

 generally not opposite and arising at less than a right angle. Photo- 

 graph of twig is about % natural size. 



LEAVES — Scattered but generally twisting so as to appear 2-ranked, 

 dark, slightly yellowish-green above, pale green below with grayish 

 lines of minute dots on either side of midrib, flattened generally blunt 

 at the apex, about i/^ inch long with a distinct short stalk, borne upon 

 a reddish-brown decurrent projection of the bark which is left as a 

 raised scar at the fall of the leaf. MICROSCOPIC SECTION — showing 

 a single fibro-vascular bundle and a large resin-duct filling the space 

 between the bundle and the epidermis. 



BUDS — Small, about 2mm. long, ovate, reddish-brown, not resinous- 

 coated. 



FRUIT — Small, stalked pendant cones, ripening the first season, and 

 generally persistent through winter, about % inch long. 



COMPARISONS — In its flattened, apparently 2-ranked leaves the 

 Hemlock resembles the Balsam Fir, but aside from the difference in 

 habit and bark, the leaves of the Hemlock are shorter, distinctly 

 stalked and leave projecting scars when they fall off. Prom the 

 Spruces it is distinguished by its distinctly flattened and stalked leaves 

 and flattened spray. 



DISTRIBUTION — Cold soils, borders of swamps, deep woods, ravines, 

 mountain slopes, and also cultivated as an ornamental tree. Nova 

 Scotia, New Brunswick, through Quebec and Ontario; south to Delaware 

 and along the mountains to Georgia and Alabama, ascending to an 

 altitude of 2,000 feet in the Adirondacks.; west to Michigan and Minne- 

 sota. 



IN NEW ENGLAND — Maine — abundant, generally distributed in the 

 southern and central portions, becoming rare northward, disappearing 

 entirely in most of Aroostook county and the northern Penobscot region; 

 New Hampshire — abundant, from the sea to a height of 2,000 feet in the 

 White Mountains, disappearing in upper Coos county; Vermont — common 

 especially in mountain forests; Connecticut — usually frequent but rather 

 local in its distribution; Massachusetts and Rhode Island — common. 



WOOD — Light, soft, not strong, brittle, coarse-grained, difficult to 

 work, liable to wind-shake and splinter, not durable when exposed to 

 the air, light brown tinged with red, with thin somewhat darker 

 sapwood; largely manufactured into coarse lumber, employed for the 

 outside finish of buildings. The astringent inner bark furnishes the 

 largest part of the material used in the northeastern states and Canada 

 in tanning leather. Oil of Hemlock is distilled from the young 

 branches. 



