December 15, 1S97.] 



Garden and Forest. 



491 



with short pendant branches and branchlets, forming a re- 

 markably dense, compact, flat-topped mass of foliage. 

 Several of these plants were originally found together. and 

 transplanted, and the largest of them which I have seen 

 is on the Howland estate, in Matteawan, New York, and is 

 now about twenty-five feet across. This variety has been 

 propagated by grafting the branches on the ordinary Hem- 

 lock, but in a few years the grafted plants form an erect 

 stem and lose the dense low r habit which is the charm of 

 the original seedlings. There are a number of dwarf erect 

 forms of the Hemlock in cultivation and others with branches 

 a little more pendulous than ordinary. On the variety ma- 

 crophylla, which is common in European collections, 

 the leaves are crowded and dark green, and on the variety 

 albo-spica the leaves are slightly defaced with pale mark- 

 ings. None of the varieties, however, with the excep- 

 tion of Mr. Sargent's Hemlock, have much to recommend 

 them as ornamental plants, and usually they are prized 

 only by lovers of vegetable monstrosities. 



The second Hemlock of eastern North America, Tsuga 

 Caroliniana, is distinguished from the better-known Tsuga 

 Canadensis by its larger, broader and darker-colored leaves, 

 from six to ten lines long and refuse or often notched at the 

 apex, and by its larger cones with oblong scales longer 

 than wide and spread at maturity nearly at right angles 

 to the axis of the cone. The Carolina Hemlock, which 

 grows usually on dry rocky ridges and the banks of moun- 

 tain streams mostly at elevations between 2,000 and 2,500 

 feet above the sea-level, is distributed along the Blue Ridge 

 from south-western Virginia to South Carolina generally in 

 small groves, and frequently mingled with the other spe- 

 cies. It is a beautiful tree of compact pyramidal habit, 

 occasionally sixty feet in height, with a trunk rarely ex- 

 ceeding two feet in diameter, and dense dark green lustrous 

 foliage. Sixteen years ago the Carolina Hemlock was first 

 raised in the Arnold Arboretum, where it has proved quite 

 hardy, promising to become here a first-rate ornamental 

 tree. Still rare in gardens, this beautiful Hemlock is now 

 gradually becoming known to the cultivators of orna- 

 mental trees. 



The noblest of its race, at once the largest and the most 

 graceful of all Hemlocks, Tsuga Mertensiana of the north- 

 west coast, has not proved hardy here in New England, 

 although there is still some hope that plants raised from 

 seeds gathered in the exceedingly cold and comparatively 

 dry interior regions of Montana, Idaho or British Colum- 

 bia, to which this tree extends, may prove more satisfactory 

 here than the plants taken from the warm wet coast region, 

 although a first attempt made in the Arboretum with plants 

 collected by Sereno Watson in Idaho in 1880 has not 

 proved successful. 



The second western American species, Tsuga Pattoni, 

 the only representative of Hesperapeuce, is a tree with 

 pendant branches densely clothed with dark green or with 

 glaucous pale blue foliage and elongated bright purple or 

 light green cones, which are usually pendulous, but in 

 Alaska are occasionally erect, owing to the shortness of the 

 much-thickened branchlets, due, no doubt, to the severity 

 of the climate. Patton's Spruce is a tree of high alpine 

 slopes, only reaching the sea-level, so far as is now known, 

 in the neighborhood of Sitka, on Baranoff Island, and 

 ranges from about latitude sixty degrees north southward 

 along the high coast mountains, extending eastward in 

 British Columbia to the Selkirks, and in the United States 

 to the Cceur d'Alene and Bitter Root Mountains of Idaho 

 and to northern Montana, and southward along the 

 Sierra Nevada, where it is rarely seen below elevations of 

 10,000 feet above the sea-level. Patton's Spruce, with its 

 drooping leading shoots and pendant branches clothed 

 with slender waving spray which hide strength to with- 

 stand the fiercest mountain gales and the heaviest burdens 

 of enveloping snow, is certainly the most beautiful of the 

 alpine trees of this continent. Introduced into Europe 

 about fifty years ago, it has proved hardy there, as it has 

 on the Atlantic seaboard of New England. Here, how- 



ever, like most alpine trees, it grows very slowly and still 

 retains its dense pyramidal juvenile habit. 



In Japan Hemlock-trees are common at high elevations, 

 and the coniferous forests which cover the mountain 

 ranges of central Hondo above 5,000 feet are chiefly com- 

 posed of these trees and of Birches. Of the two species 

 which inhabit Hondo, Tsuga diversifolia is the more north- 

 ern and the larger tree. It is this tree which grows on the 

 Nikko Mountains above Lake Umoto (see Garden and For- 

 est, vol. vi., f. 73), and which ranges as far north as the 

 slopes of Mount Hakkoda, near Aomon. The second Japa- 

 nese species, Tsuga Araragi (the Tsuga Sieboldi of many 

 authors and the Tsuga Tsuga of others), is a more southern 

 and a smaller tree, growing, as I saw it on Mount Koma- 

 ga-taka, in scattered groves among deciduous-leaved trees 

 and Pinus densiflora and not in continuous forests. Tsuga 

 diversifolia, which is frequently eighty feet in height, with 

 a trunk three or four feet in diameter, may be distinguished 

 from the southern tree by its darker red bark, more slender 

 branchlets covered with fine rufous pubescence, by its 

 shorter and narrower leaves and much smaller cones which 

 are rarely more than half an inch in length ; while the 

 longer, broader and more lustrous leaves and smooth lus- 

 trous orange-brown branchlets of Tsuga Araragi serve to 

 distinguish the southern tree before it begins to bear cones, 

 which are nearly an inch long. (See figures 62 and 63 on 

 pages 492 and 493 of this issue, made from plants in the 

 neighborhood of Boston.) 



The two Japanese Hemlocks are successfully cultivated 

 by Mr. Hunnewell in his pinetum at Wellesley, where they 

 are both hardy and where there are fine plants of Tsuga 

 Araragi, the largest being about sixteen feet in height, and 

 smaller specimens of Tsuga diversifolia. Most of the Japa- 

 nese Hemlocks in our gardens, however, belong to the north- 

 ern species, which, although probably hardier, is a less at- 

 tractive tree than Tsuga Araragi. This with its large lustrous 

 leaves and excellent habit is certainly one of the most 

 beautiful of the Hemlocks which are hardy in this climate, 

 and if it proves its ability on a longer trial to maintain itself 

 here in good condition, it will doubtless become a popular 

 ornament of American gardens. Tsuga diversifolia is a 

 less beautiful tree than our native Hemlock, and, unless it 

 develops qualities which it has not shown yet in this coun- 

 try, it will probably never be very popular here. 



The Hemlock with pubescent shoots and small cones 

 found by Dr. Augustine Henry in the province of Hupeh, 

 in central China, is probably the northern Japanese species, 

 although the leaves of the Chinese plant are rather longer 

 than those of the Japanese tree. 



Tsuga dumosa, the Himalayan Hemlock, is scattered 

 from Kumaon to Bootan at elevations between 8,000 and 

 10,500 feet above the sea-level, and is a noble tree occa- 

 sionally 120 feet in height, with a trunk seven or eight feet 

 in diameter, and longer leaves than those of the other 

 species. I have never seen a specimen in the United States, 

 and in Europe the Indian Hemlock has not grown particu- 

 larly well. C. S. S. 



The Cultivation of Citrus Fruits in California. 



r PHE outlook for the Citrus-fruit growers of California for the 

 ^ coming season is the best in the history of the industry. 

 The crop will be the largest. The fruit has now attained a repu- 

 tation in eastern markets such as it has never had before, times 

 are easier than at any period for the past few years, and tariff 

 protection will give California growers an advantage not pre- 

 viously enjoyed. This advantage will be partially offset by a 

 reduction of freight charges on fruit from the Mediterranean, 

 but will still be appreciable. Under these conditions an out- 

 line of the development of Citrus-fruit culture, as a commercial 

 industry in California, may be of interest. 



Orange and Lemon trees are growing in nearly all of the 

 counties of the state not exclusively in the mountainous sec- 

 tions, and many of these trees are bearing more or less fruit 

 of very fair quality. For climatic reasons, however, the Citrus- 

 fruit industry is and must be confined to a belt of country lying 

 among the foot-hills of the Sierra Nevada mountains, and 

 called the thermal belt. It stretches from San Diego to Tehama 



