Tree Study 



801 



THE HEMLOCK 

 Teacher s Story 



"O'er lonely lakes that wild and nameless lie, 

 Black, shaggy, vast and still as Barca's sands 

 A hemtocti forest stands. Oh forest like a pall! 

 Oh hemlock of the wild, Oh brother of my soul 

 I love thy mantle black, thy shaggy bole. 

 Thy form grotesque, thy spreading arms of steel." 



— Pattee. 



The hemlock branches 

 the burden sUde off. 

 is furrowed into wide, 

 but whitish when seen 



N ITS prime, the hemlock is a magnificent tree. 

 It reaches the height of from sixty to one hun- 

 dred feet, is cone-shaped, its fine, dense foliage 

 and its drooping branches giving to its appear- 

 ance exqtiisite delicacy; and I have yet to see 

 elsewhere such graceful tree-spires as are the 

 hemlocks of the Sierras, albeit they have bend- 

 ing tips. However, an old hemlock becomes 

 very ragged and rugged in appearance; and 

 dying, it rears its wind-broken branches against 

 the sky, a gaunt figure of stark loneliness, 

 are seldom broken by snow; they droop to let 

 The bark is reddish, or sometimes gray, and 

 scaly ridges. The foliage is a rich dark green, 

 from below. The leaves of the hemlock are 

 really arranged in a spiral, but this is hard to demonstrate. They 

 look as though they were arranged in double rows along each side of the 

 little twig; but they are not in the same plane and there is usually a row of 

 short leaves on the upper side of the twig. The leaf is blunt at the tip and 

 has a little petiole of its own which distinguishes it from the leaves of any 

 other species of conifer; it is dark, glossy green above, pale green beneath, 

 marked with two white, lengthwise lines. In June, the tip of every twig 

 grows and puts forth new leaves which are greenish yellow in color, making 

 the tree very beautiful and giving it the appearance of blossoming. The 

 leaves are shed during the third year. The hemlock cones are small and 

 are borne on the tips of the twigs. The seeds are borne, two beneath each 

 scale, and they have wings nearly as large as the scale itself. Squirrels are 

 so fond of them that probably but few have an opportunity to try their 

 wings. The cones mature in one year, and usually fall in the spring. The 

 hemlock blossoms in May; the pistillate flowers are very difficult to observe 

 as they are tiny and greenish and are placed at the tip of the twig. The 

 pollen-bearing flowers are little, yellowish balls on delicate, short stems, 

 borne along the sides of the twig. 



Hemlock bark is rich in tannin and is used in great quantities for the 

 tanning of leather. The timber, which is coarse-grained, is stiff and is used 

 in framing buildings and for railroad ties ; nails and spikes driven into it 

 cling with great tenacity and the wood does not split in nailing. Oil dis- 

 tilled from the leaves of hemlock is used as an antiseptic. 



The dense foliage of the hemlock offers a shelter to birds of all kinds in 

 winter; even the partridges roost in the young trees. These young tree 

 often have branches drooping to the ground, making an evergreen tent 



