THE EASTERN HEMLOCK. 17 
and the older ones become very large. The latter are covered with a 
thick firm bark, the outer and thicker layer of a pale red color, the 
very thin inner layer white. On the whole, hemlock is a shallow- 
rooted species, and can thrive on very shallow soil. In deep soils, 
however, the roots often penetrate to some depth. 
LEAVES. 1 
The leaves are small, flat, and narrow, and differ from those of 
other northeastern conifers, except Carolina hemlock and the 
Canadian yew or ground hemlock, in that their bases are contracted 
into a very short stalk or petiole. (See d, fig. 2). They are usually 
from one-third to two-thirds of an inch long and about one-fifth as 
wide. Their color when they first appear is a fresh, light green, which 
soon changes to a dark, lustrous green on the upper and whitish 
green on the under surface, where the stomata are located. The 
leaves fall during their third season. 
BUD SCALES. 
The few exterior scales of both flower and leaf buds are thick and 
dark brown in color, while the inner scales are numerous, whitish- 
green, becoming brown with age, thin, but of an exceedingly firm 
structure. The scales remain persistent after the buds have expanded, 
those of the leaf buds not wholly disappearing until the fifth or sixth 
year. Up to this age the persistence of the scales affords a ready 
means of determining the age of a branch. 
FLOWERS. 
In the latitude of central New York the flowers expand about the 
first of June. The male flowers appear in the axils of leaves on 
shoots of the previous year, or less frequently on twigs which are 
two or sometimes three years old (fig. 2). The female flowers are 
borne singly at the ends of the twigs. 
CONES. 
The female flower, after fertilization, grows rapidly, and by 
October becomes the ripened fruit — the cone. (See d, fig. 3.) Cones 
are from one-half to three-fourths of an inch long and of equal breadth 
when dry and the scales expanded, but only half as broad when closed. 
They are pale green in color until maturity, when they become dark 
brown. Only about 20 of the scales in the center of the cone are 
seed bearing, the others being small and rudimentary. In a mature 
cone, when dry, the scales are widely separated from each other, 
standing at an angle of about 45 degrees with the axis, but when wet 
they become appressed and closely overlap each other. 
i The description of the following parts of the tree are drawn largely from a manuscript report on the 
general structure and anatomy of hemlock by Prof. Atbey N. Prentiss, of Cornell University. 
60235°— Bull. 152—15 3 
