PARK AND CC/nCTCRY. 
The Hemlock Spruce. 
TSUGA CANADENSIS. 
It is rather strange that our native conifer, the 
hemlock spruce, is not more extensively used in 
ornamental planting. Its beauty should recommend 
it. The only way to account for its conspicuous 
absence is its being a native; a word which, when 
applied to trees, shrubs and plants, carries to many 
minds the idea of commonness. 
In giving advice about evergreens, Mr. Falcon- 
er, I notice, says: “Among good-sized trees the 
American hemlock is the most elegant, but as it is 
so common,” etc. He, of course, means common in 
the sense of being frequently seen. But the tree is 
seldom seen in Illinois, well grown specimens being 
really rare. Mr. Geo. Nicholson, Curator of the 
Royal Gardens, Kew, England, says: “the white 
pine and the hemlock spruce are 
pre-eminent among conifers.” It 
is certainly the most graceful ever- 
green we have, and is beautiful 
when grown as an isolated speci- 
men, and also when used as a 
hedge. 
Mr. Elliott, the well known 
Landscape Artist, speaks of “the 
hemlock hedge which I think is 
the most beautiful and satisfact- 
ory one that can be grown in this 
climate,” (Pittsburg,) and again, 
“for larger places I think our na- 
tive hemlock spruce makes the 
handsomest of all hedges but,” he 
adds, “it is much more difficult to 
establish,” i. e. , than the Cali- 
fornia privet. The difficulties of 
establishing it as a hedge would be less pronounced 
in the matter of specimen trees and even of groups, 
and as it is so beautiful and so satisfactory it is 
worth some trouble. Transplanted nursery stock 
would, how ever, give little or no trouble either 
as individual specimens or in hedges. 
One of the most pleasing features of the plant- 
ing in the Missouri Botanical Garden, formerly 
Shaw’s Garden, is the double hedge row of hemlock 
spruces shown in the accompanying illustration. It 
is a picture the year around, and is such an excellent 
example of an unusual style of planting, unusual 
hereabouts, that I am glad to give some facts about 
it that were kindly furnished by Mr. Gurney, head 
gardener of the garden and Superintendent of 
Tower Grove Park, St. Louis, Mo. 
He says in substance that the hedge rows were 
planted at the. end of April, i88i. The stock used 
was tran.splanted in nursery rows two years before 
being set in their present location, and were two 
feet high when planted in the hedge rows, where 
they were set five feet apart in the rows. 
The soil, some sixteen inches in depth on a sub- 
soil of fire clay, was deeply dug and the little hem- 
locks were set on this, (no holes being dug,) and 
covered with soil hauled for the purpose. They 
have never been clipped, but have been pruned 
lightly each year at about the end of April, just 
when they started to grow. They are perfect hed- 
ges 8o feet in length, and are now each about six 
feet high and seven feet wide. 
Mr. Gurney considers the hemlock spruce “the 
nearest approach we have, as an evergreen, to the 
lovely Cednts Deodara.” To what he says, I will 
add that the hedge rows are perfect models of beau- 
ty, and even so good a photograph as the one used 
herein cannot do them full justice. 
Graceful, fine in color and reliably hardy, the 
hemlock spruce should be more largely used. A 
long hedge of it would be delightful and not in 
summer only for, as Longfellow has said: 
O hemlock tree! O hemlock tree! 
How faithful are thy branches! 
Green not alone in summer time. 
But in the winters’ frost and rime! 
O hemlock tree! O hemlock tree! 
How faithful are thy branches. 
Fanny Copley Seavcy. 
Perpetual Care. 
By the perpepetual care of cemetery lots is 
meant the cleaning off in spring time, cutting the 
grass during the summer and watering when 
necessary, in fact keeping the lots tidy. How can 
we change from the old method of conducting a 
cemetery to the modern and bring the place under 
the perpetual system, is a question frequently ask- 
THE HEMLOCK SPRUCE, MISSOURI BOTANICAL GARDEN, ST. LOUIS. 
