THE EASTERN HEMLOCK. 21 
The stem does not grow throughout its whole length, but at a 
certain point it becomes mature, and growth ceases. During the 
season this point lies something more than an inch back from the 
tip, and is constantly moving forward as the stem grows, until at 
the close of the season it coincides with the end of the stem. 
While the shoot of the season is growing in length, it is also at the 
same time developing lateral growths or branches. (See a, fig. 2.) 
These lateral growths begin to appear about the middle of June, in 
the form of minute rosettes of leaves similar to that at the end of the 
main shoot, and grow in a manner similar to the main stem, only far 
more slowly. In vigorous plants the main shoots often reach a length 
of 8 to 12 inches, while the strongest of the lateral shoots scarcely 
reach an inch in length. 
Winter buds begin to form about the middle of September at the 
end of the main shoot and of its branches, and also in the axils of 
many leaves of the main shoot. 
The tree reaches its fruiting stage usually when from 20 to 40 years 
old and from 15 to 25 feet in height. The staminate flower buds 
begin to develop about the 1st of July and by the last of the month 
have become well formed. In general appearance they resemble the 
lateral leaf buds, but are twice the size and more conical in form. 
Sometimes every leaf, or at least a portion of a flower-bearing shoot, 
has a flower bud in its axil. 
The pistillate flower buds also begin to develop early in July, but 
grow more slowly than the staminate buds. When fully formed they 
are about the same size as the latter, but their exterior scales are of 
a much firmer texture and deeper brown in color, while their bases 
are covered with the overlapping scale processes of the neighboring 
leaves. Though both kinds of flower buds occur on the same general 
branch, they are both rarely borne on the same shoot. In other 
words, while the plant as a whole is monoecious, the shoots of the 
season are dioecious. 
A wide difference exists in the vigor and size of flower-bearing and 
leaf-bearing shoots. On young and thrifty trees the latter are often 
8 to 10 inches in length, while on trees of fruiting age they rarely 
exceed an inch or an inch and a half in length. 
ASSOCIATED SPECIES. 
In one part or another of its range hemlock grows in mixture with 
a number of tree species. There are, however, four kinds of forest 
in which it is a characteristic and important element; hemlock in 
mixture with either yellow birch, beech, or sugar maple, or with all 
three; hemlock with white pine; hemlock with red spruce; and hem- 
lock in practically pure stands. Other species than those just men- 
