Evergreen trees with slender horizontal or drooping branches, flat narrowly linear scattered short-petioled leaves, spreading and appearing 2-ranked, jointed to very short sterigmata and falling away in drying. Leaf-buds scaly. Staminate aments axillary, short or subglo-bose; anthers 2-celled, the sacs transversely dehiscent, the connective slightly produced beyond them; pollen-grains simple. Ovule-bearing aments terminal, the scales about as long as the bracts, each bearing 2 reflexed ovules on its base. Cones small, ovoid or oblong, pendulous, their scales scarcely woody, obtuse, persistent. Seeds somewhat winged. [Name Japanese.]

About 7 species; the following in North America, 2 in northwestern North America, 3 or 4 Asiatic. Type species: Tsuga Sieboldi Carr. (Abies Tsuga Sieb. & Zucc.) of Japan.

1. Tsuga Canadensis (L.) Carr. Hemlock

Fig. 146

Pinus canadensis L. Sp. PI. Ed. 2, 1421. 1763. Abies canadensis Michx. Fl. Bor. Am. 2: 206.

1803. Tsuga canadensis Carr. Trait. Conif. 189. 1855.

A tall forest tree, sometimes 110° high, the trunk reaching 4° in diameter, the lower branches somewhat drooping, the old bark flaky in scales. Foliage dense; leaves obtuse, flat, 6"-9" long, less than 1" wide, dark green above, pale beneath, the petiole less than one-half as long as the width of the blade; cones oblong, obtuse, as long as or slightly longer than the leaves, their scales suborbicular, obtuse, minutely lacerate or entire, not widely spreading at maturity.

Nova Scotia to Minnesota, south to Delaware, along the Alleghanies to Alabama and to Michigan and Wisconsin. Ascends to 2000 ft. in the Adirondacks. One of the most ornamental of evergreens when young. Wood soft, weak, brittle, coarse-grained, light brown or nearly white; weight per cubic foot 26 lbs. Bark much used in tanning. April-May. Called also Spruce Pine, Hemlock Spruce.

2. Tsuga Caroliniana Engelm. Carolina Hemlock

Fig. 147

Tsuga caroliniana Engelm. Coult. Bot. Gaz. 6:

223. 1881. Abies caroliniana Chapm. Fl. S. States, Ed. 2, 650. 1883.

A forest tree attaining a maximum height of about 8o° and a trunk diameter of 3 1/2º, the lower branches drooping. Leaves narrowly linear, obtuse, rather light green above, nearly white beneath, 7"-10" long, the petiole nearly as long as the width of the blade; cones l'- 1 1/4' long, the scales firm but scarcely woody, oblong, obtuse, widely spreading at maturity.

Southwestern Virginia to South Carolina and Georgia in the Alleghanies. Wood soft, weak, brittle, light brown; weight per cubic foot about 27 lbs. A more graceful and beautiful tree than the preceding at maturity. Ascends to 4200 ft. in North Carolina. Called also Southern Hemlock. April.