444 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY, 



Maple (Michaux). The young twigs and ends of the shoots are used 

 by the settlers as a substitute for tea ; the essence of spruce is also 

 extracted from the shoots. In England the Hemlock Spruce forms 

 one of the most ornamental of the Fir family, being among needle- 

 leaved evergreen trees what the Weeping Willow is among the Willows. 

 As it bears the knife, and is extremely hardy, it might be employed 

 as hedges, for which purpose it is used in the American nurseries, 

 along with Thuya occidentalis. 



This Hemlock of Eastern America is the best known of all the 

 Spruces, being freely planted in the Eastern States, as well as in 

 Europe and Australia. It is recognised at sight by its many long 

 ascending plume-like branches, divided into small twigs, each clothed 

 with dark green leaves in two ranks, and its small oval cones, about 

 three-fourths of an inch long, produced along the edges of the plumes 

 like a fringe of pendent acorns. 



Always beautiful when standing alone, and where it can expand, 

 this tree becomes singularly unsightly when crowded in a swamp. 

 Here, in yielding to the pressure of its environment and the attacks 

 of its neighbours of the same species — always the most ruthless of 

 enemies, since all are inherently iitted for the place which only one 

 may be able to seize and hold — the tree becomes extremely dejected 

 and its branches crippled. 



This aspect of decrepitude does not appear when the tree is allowed 

 to develop at will, as on the edge of a forest, or when planted on a 

 lawn, where it becomes a mass of conical foliage of great beauty. 

 The branches, nearly horizontal, spring out irregularly from the trunk, 

 never in whorls ; the branchlets bend gracefully outward and down- 

 ward, the longest in the middle of the branches, dividing and sub- 

 dividing into tiny segments, reminding one of the compound leaves 

 of the Poison Hemlock of the Parsnip family, and this resemblance 

 suggested the popular name "Hemlock" for these trees (J. G. 

 Lemmon, " California State Board of Forestry," 1889-90). 



No evergreen tree or shrub can excel this Conifer for richness of 

 foliage or beauty of outline ; and during spring or early summer the 

 young, drooping shoots, of a lively yellowish green, contrast finely 

 with the dark sombre green of the older foliage, and form a combina- 

 tion that, for pleasing effect, is certainly hard to match. An erroneous 

 opinion is gaining ground that the Hemlock Spruce is not suited for 

 the climate of Britain ; even Loudon and Michaux have little to say in 

 its favour ; and as a veteran American arboriculturist some time ago 

 remarked, English nurserymen have generally followed suit by 

 regarding the tree in a similar light. True it is we have no such 

 specimens as are recorded from " the Far West," and equally true is it 

 that this Spruce will not flourish and put on its best garb when planted 

 anywhere and anyhow with us, no more than do the majority of 

 foreign importations ; but treat the Hemlock Spruce iii a rational 



