The Trees of Great Britain & Ireland/Volume 2/Tsuga

by Henry John Elwes and Augustine Henry

 

TSUGA

 

Tsuga, Carrière, Traité Conif. 185 (1855); Bentham et Hooker, Gen. Pl. iii. 440 (1880); Masters, Journ. Linn. Soc. (Bot.) xxx. 28 (1893).

Hesperopeuce, Lemmon, Rep. Calif. State Board Forestry, iii. 111 (1890).

 

Evergreen trees belonging to the natural order Coniferæ. Branches horizontal or pendulous, pinnately and irregularly ramified. Buds, one terminal and a few lateral, arising irregularly in the axils of some of the leaves of the current year's shoot, most of the leaves being without buds in their axils. Leaves linear, arising from the branchlets in spiral order, and usually thrown by a twisting of their petioles into a pectinate arrangement, or in one species spreading radially. Petioles short, arising from prominent leaf-bases on the branchlets, appressed against the twigs, a sharp angle being formed by the leaf with the stalk at the point of junction. The leaf has one resin-canal, lying in the middle line between the vascular bundle and the epidermis of the lower surface. The leaves persist for several years; and all the species have in consequence of this and their numerous and fine branchlets very dense foliage.

Flowers monœcious. Male flowers in the axils of the leaves of the previous years shoot near its apex, composed of numerous spirally arranged, short-stalked, two-celled anthers, with glandular-tipped connectives. Female flowers terminal on lateral shoots of the previous year, short-stalked or sub-sessile, erect, composed of spirally arranged, nearly circular scales, and membranous, usually shorter bracts. Ovules, two on each scale. Cones solitary, small, composed of concave woody imbricated scales, which persist on the axis of the cone after the escape of the seeds, and of inconspicuous bracts, which, except in one species, are concealed between the scales. The cones, ripening in one season, allow the seeds to fall out in the first autumn or winter, but remain on the tree until the summer or autumn of the second year. The seeds, two on each scale, are minute, furnished with resin vesicles and winged. The seedling has three to six cotyledons, which bear stomata on their upper surface.

Tsuga is confined to temperate North America, Japan, China, and the Himalayas. The genus consists of nine species, and is divided into two sections:—

I. Hesperopeuce, Engelmann, in Brewer and Watson, Bot. California, i. 121 (1880).

Leaves rounded or keeled above, bearing stomata on both surfaces, and radially arranged; the shorter and lateral branchlets standing in a plane at right angles to the longer and terminal ones. Cones oblong-cylindrical, large, composed of numerous (about seventy) scales.

This section includes one species:—

1. Tsuga Pattoniana, Sénéclauze. Western North America.

 

II. Micropeuce, Spach, Hist. Vég. xi. 424 (1842), identical with Eutsuga, Engelmann, loc. cit. 120 (1880).

Leaves flat, grooved above, bearing stomata on the lower surface only, pectinately arranged on the branchlets, which are all in one plane. Cones ovoid, small, composed of few scales, rarely more than twenty-five.

This section comprises the remaining species, of which six are in cultivation in this country. These may be conveniently arranged as follows:—

A. Leaves serrulate in margin. Shoots pubescent.

2. Tsuga Canadensis, Carriére. Eastern North America.

Leaves, ⅓ to ⅔ inch long, usually tapering from the base to the acute or rounded apex; lower surface marked with two narrow well-defined white stomatic bands, the part of the leaf external to them being pure green in colour. Buds brown, ovoid, pointed, composed of pubescent, keeled acute scales.

3. Tsuga Albertiana, Sénéclauze. Western North America.

Leaves, ¼ to ¾ inch long, usually rounded at the apex and uniform in breadth; lower surface with two ill-defined broad white stomatic bands, which are indistinctly continued to the margins, there being no distinct bands of pure green. Buds greyish, ovoid, apex obtuse and flattened; scales keeled, pubescent.

4. Tsuga Brunoniana, Carrière. Himalayas.

Leaves, 1 to 1¼ inch long, gradually tapering from the base to the acute apex; lower surface silvery white, stomatic bands well-defined and extending almost to the margins. Buds globose, flattened on the top, surrounded at the base by a ring of modified leafy scales, the other scales ovate, acute, pubescent.

 

B. Leaves entire in margin. Shoots glabrous.

5. Tsuga Sieboldii, Carrière. Japan. Leaves, ¼ to 1 inch long, oblong, rounded and notched at the apex, shining above; lower surface with two narrow well-defined white stomatic bands. Buds red, ovoid, slightly acute at the apex; scales glabrous and ciliate.

 

C. Leaves entire in margin. Shoots pubescent.

6. Tsuga diversifolia, Maximowicz. Japan.

Shoots pubescent, both on the leaf-bases and in the furrows between them. Leaves, ¼ to ½ inch long, oblong, rounded and notched at the apex; lower surface with two narrow well-defined white stomatic bands. Buds red, pyriform, flattened above; scales obtuse, minutely pubescent.

7. Tsuga Caroliniana, Engelmann. Southern Alleghany Mountains.

Shoots pubescent in the furrows between the leaf-bases, which are glabrous. Leaves, ¼ to ¾ inch long, oblong, rounded at the apex, which is entire, minutely notched or mucronate; lower surface with two narrow well-defined white stomatic bands. Buds reddish, ovoid, sharp-pointed; scales indistinctly keeled.

In addition to the preceding, two species of Tsuga, belonging to this section, occur in China. They are as yet imperfectly known. Tsuga chinensis, Masters,^[1] a native of the high mountains of Szechuan, is closely allied to Tsuga dwversifolia, and, like it, has pubescent young shoots. It differs in the cones, which are quite sessile, and have very lustrous scales. The leaves are described as being green beneath; but this is probably an inconstant character.

Tsuga yunnanensis, Masters,^[2] which was discovered by Pére Delavay in the mountains near Likiang in Yunnan, is unknown to me. Franchet considers it to be closely allied to T. Sieboldii.

 

TSUGA PATTONIANA, Hooker's Hemlock

 

Tsuga Pattoniana, Sénéclauze, Conif. 21 (1867); Engelmann, in Brewer and Watson, Bot. California, ii, 121 (1880); Masters, Gard. Chron. xii. 10, fig. 1 (1892).

Tsuga Hookeriana, Carrière, Traité Conif. 252 (1867); and Lemmon, Erythea, vi. 78 (1898).

Tsuga Mertensiana, Sargent, Silva N. Amer. xii. 77, t. 606 (1898), and Trees N. Amer. 51 (1905); Kent, Veitch's Man. Coniferæ, 468 (1900).

Pinus Mertensiana, Bongard, Végét. de Sitcha, 54 (1832).

Pinus Pattoniana, Parlatore, D. C. Prod. xvi. 2, p. 429 (1864).

Abies Pattoniana, Balfour, Rep. Oregon Assoc. 1 (1853); Murray in Lawson, Pin. Brit. ii. 157 (1884).

Abies Hookeriana, Murray, Edin. New Phil. Journ. 289 (1855); and in Lawson, loc. cit. 153.

Abies Williamsonii, Newberry, Pacific R. R. Report, vi. pt. iii. 53, t. 7, fig. 19 (1857).

Hesperopeuce Pattoniana, Lemmon, Rep. Calif. State Board Forestry, iii. 128 (1890).

 

A tree, occasionally attaining in America 150 feet in height, with a girth of 15 feet. Bark dark cinnamon in colour, deeply divided into rounded connected scaly ridges. Shoots brownish-grey, and densely pubescent. Branchlets in different planes, the shorter and lateral ones usually arising on the upper side of the longer and terminal ones, and disposed at right angles to them, giving a tufted appearance to the branch. Leaves radially arranged on the branchlets, not markedly different in size, # to 1 inch long, curved, linear; apex usually rounded and obtuse, rarely acute; upper surface convex and keeled towards the apex; lower surface rounded with a median groove; both surfaces with about eight lines of stomata, which are sparse and do not form conspicuous white bands; margin entire. Buds brownish, ovoid, acute at the apex, composed of a few closely imbricated, strongly keeled scales.

Cones sessile, about two inches long, oblong cylindrical, tapering at the apex and slightly narrowed at the base, composed of five series of scales, each series with fourteen to fifteen scales. Scales thin, broader than long, semicircular with a wedge-shaped base, convex, margin irregularly denticulate, pubescent on both surfaces. Bract oblong, abruptly tapering at the apex, which is visible between the scales. Seed with terminal asymmetrical wing, and two resin-vesicles on the side next the scale.

The name Pattoniana is adopted as being the first published under the correct genus Tsuga. The tree is known to American botanists as Tsuga Mertensiana, which is unfortunate, as this name was for many years in use for the western hemlock. There is no confusion possible if Pattoniana be selected, as no other hemlock has been known at any time by this name.

 

Varieties

The preceding description is drawn up from living specimens of the form with bluish entire leaves, cultivated in this country, and applies, in all essential characters, to dried specimens from trees growing wild in America. I have examined the material in the Kew herbarium and also specimens collected by Elwes on Mount Shasta at 7500 feet elevation; and there do not appear to be two distinct varieties of the tree in the wild state, as the presumed alpine form is only a stunted shrub which agrees in botanical characters with the trees from lower levels.

In England, however, there is a form in cultivation, distinguished by its green serrulate leaves, which differs in many respects from the other form. Concerning its origin, we only know, on the authority of Murray,^[3] that it was raised at Edinburgh from seeds collected by Jeffrey in 1851 on the Mount Baker range in British Columbia. Jeffrey found trees growing there from 5000 feet elevation to the snow line, varying in size from 150 feet in height and 13½ feet in girth at lower levels to a stunted shrub not more than 4 feet high close to the timber line. Specimens at Kew from Mount Baker gathered by Jeffrey all have entire leaves and belong to the ordinary wild form.

Engelmann,^[4] who visited the Mount Baker range, states that the trees growing there are the ordinary forms of Tsuga Pattoniana and Tsuga Albertiana. He suggests that the plants raised from Jeffrey's seed may be a mountain form of the latter species; but this cannot be admitted, as they do not resemble that species in botanical characters (buds, leaves, etc.). It is possible that these plants are only a seedling variation of Tsuga Pattoniana, and do not correspond with any distinct species or geographical form in the wild state.

Murray,^[5] believing that he had two species to deal with, named the bluish form Abies Hookeriana, and assigned the name Abies Pattoniana, Balfour, to the other form. The original figure of Balfour's species represents, however, the same plant as Abies Hookeriana of Murray; and much confusion has resulted in consequence in the use of the two names Hookeriana and Pattoniana. It is most convenient to apply the name Pattoniana to the bluish form, as it is the earliest name of the wild plant, and to consider the green-foliaged plant to be a variety of it, which may be called var. Jeffreyi.

The two forms are distinguished as follows:—

1. Var. typica. The form distinguished in cultivation by its bluish foliage. Introduced in 1854 by William Murray, who found the tree on Scots Mountain, in California.

Leaves, though radially arranged, tending on the lower side of the shoot to be in the plane of the branch and not spreading; those on the upper side of the shoot curved and directed outwards and forwards. They are long and narrow, ¹⁄₂ to ⁷⁄₈ inch long, and ¹⁄₂₀ inch wide, entire in margin, convex on both surfaces, the groove in the median line above being very short or absent and never continued to the apex of the leaf, which is rounded or acute; both surfaces marked with conspicuous lines of stomata extending from the base to the apex of the leaf.

2. Var. Jeffreyi. Only known in cultivation, distinguished by its greenish foliage.

Leaves spreading radially and directed outwards (never forwards) on all sides of the shoot; straight, short, and broad, less than ¹⁄₂ inch long and about ¹⁄₁₆ inch in width, serrulate in margin; upper surface flattened and distinctly grooved, the groove continued to the rounded apex; lower surface convex, with lines of stomata the whole length of the leaf. On the upper surface the stomata only occur in four to six broken lines towards the apex.

This form agrees with the typical form in the character of the buds and pubescence of the branchlets; the shoots, however, are not so slender. (A.H.)

 

Mr. Gorman gives the following account^[6] of the supposed Alpine form, alluded to above:—"Among the hardy alpine trees Hooker's hemlock stands pre-eminent, having a northern range far beyond that of even the white-barked pine. It is a small, dwarfed and stunted tree compared with the type, and seldom exceeds 12 inches diameter or 30 feet in height. It usually ranges in altitude from 5500 to 6400 feet, but is occasionally found up to and beyond 7000 feet where it can find sufficient moisture. Though generally favouring the heads of moist valleys it is sometimes to be found on the leeward side of peaks and slopes, where snowbanks of sufficient size have formed in winter to maintain an adequate supply of moisture during the rest of the year. It is in the latter situations where the tree reaches its highest altitude. In addition to its smaller size and more alpine habit it further differs from its nearest congener in having thinner bark and small erect cones, all the other hemlocks having pendent cones. The tree is too small and inaccessible to have any economic value."

This seems to be distinguished principally by its erect cones. Sargent,^[7] who alludes to Gorman's account, does not consider this variation to be worthy of distinction, and explains it by saying that the position of the cones "is evidently due to the thickness of the short lateral branchlets, on which they are terminal and which are sometimes so rigid that the weight of the cones does not make them pendent."

 

Distribution

This tree is only found at high elevations, where it has much the same geographical range as the western hemlock, but it extends farther south in California and reaches its southern limit at 9000 to 10,000 feet on the south fork of King River in the Sierra Nevada.

In the north it descends to sea level on Baranoff Island, and on the shores of Yes Bay in Alaska, lat. 55° 54' N., where Mr. Martin Gorman collected it. As a rule it is a tree of high altitudes, growing on exposed ridges and slopes near the upper limit of the forest, in company with Abies lasiocarpa, Picea Engelmanni, and Pinus albicaulis. In the Rocky Mountains of British Columbia Mrs. Nicholl found it as a good-sized tree near Glacier up to 7000 feet, though Wilcox,^[8] in his excellent account of the trees of that region, pp. 61–65, does not mention it.

Though usually a more or less stunted and ragged tree, it attains a large size on the Cascade Mountains, where I saw it in perfection on the road from Longmire Springs to Paradise Valley, on the south side of Mount Tacoma,^[9] in August 1904, first at about 4000 feet, where it was only a scattered tree, and higher up it mixed with the western hemlock in a splendid forest. I was not able to distinguish the two species by their bark, though when not crowded, the habit of Hooker's hemlock is very distinct; but they could be identified by the fallen cones under the trees. The largest that I measured here was about 150 feet by 13 feet 8 inches. Higher up, where the forest^[10] opened out into glades at the bottom of the Paradise Valley, which is, in Professor Sargent's opinion, one of the most interesting in America for its alpine flora, it assumed a different and more flat-topped habit; the largest here that I measured was 108 feet by 13 feet 3 inches. It grew in company with Abies lasiocarpa, and seedlings of both were numerous on rotten logs on the shady sides of the clumps in which they always grew.

The tree in a very stunted state reaches the timber line—about 7500 feet—in company with Abies lasiocarpa and Cupressus nootkatensis; but in California, J. Muir^[11] measured a specimen at 9500 feet, near the margin of Lake Hollow, which was 19 feet 7 inches in girth at 4 feet from the ground.

Mr. Gorman gives an excellent account of the tree in his Survey of the Eastern Part of the Washington Forest Reserve, pp. 335–336, from which I quote as follows:—

"This hemlock is confined to the moist valleys and vicinity of the passes. It is the prevailing tree in Cascade Pass, 5421 feet, and is quite common about the

 

Plate 67: Hooker’s Hemlock at Murthly

Plate 67.

HOOKER’S HEMLOCK AT MURTHLY

 

sources of the Stehekin, where it attains a very fair size for this region, ranging from 50 to 90 feet in height and from 12 to 27 inches in diameter. The altitudinal range is greater than was expected, from 3100 feet to 5800 feet, and a tree supposed to be of this species was found as low as 2100 feet in the Stehekin Valley.

"The tree is sometimes taken for the western hemlock, but may be distinguished by the erect top of the sapling, the cones long, purple, and more or less massed about the top of the tree; and the mature tree has an unusually thick, roughly corrugated bark: while in the western hemlock the top is generally drooping, the cones small, oval, and brown, and well distributed over the branches, and the mature tree has a comparatively thin bark. The wood is close grained and of fine texture, and is quite suitable for lumber or fuel, but is not much used on account of its growing usually in inaccessible situations."

Near Crater Lake in Southern Oregon, Mr. Leiberg (Cascade Forest Reserve Report, pp. 245, 259), says:—"A few scattered groves of Patton hemlock occur in the southern tracts, some of which are of large size, occasional individuals reaching six to seven feet in diameter. Occasional stands of Patton hemlock 200 to 300 years old exhibit fine proportions at this elevation, 6000 feet; the species usually grows in close groups, composed of ten or twenty individuals, collected together on what appears to be a common root; such close growth develops clear trunks, though not commonly of large diameter. Stands of this character sometimes run as high as 25,000 feet per acre."

 

Remarkable Trees

Though now introduced for about fifty-five years this tree has made but little show in our gardens, as the climate of most parts of England is probably too warm for it. I have seen flourishing specimens of no great size in several places, the best, perhaps, being one at Tyberton Court, Herefordshire, the seat of Chandos Lee Warner, Esq., where there is a tree of the typical form 43 feet high by about 3½ feet in girth, said to be fifty years old, and perhaps one of those introduced by William Murray, and sent out by Lawson.

In Scotland it seems to thrive even better, especially at Murthly Castle, where there is a fine group of trees on a lawn (Plate 67). When measured for the Conifer Conference in 1892 the best of these was 35 feet by 3 feet 10 inches, another 30 feet by 4 feet. When I last saw them in September 1906 the tallest tree on the left of the row was 47 feet by 3 feet 8 inches, the tree in the middle with weeping branches 43 feet by 4 feet 2 inches, and the thickest between these two was 6 feet 7 inches in girth. The difference in the habit'of these three is well shown in the plate. They produced seed in 1887, from which a number were raised and planted at Murthly. These have grown slowly, and the tallest in 1906 were six or seven feet high, though quite healthy; and the growth of seedlings which I raised from seed gathered on Mount Rainier is extremely slow.

At Keillour, Henry measured, in 1904, a specimen which was 4o feet by 3 feet 9 inches; and at the Cairnies, near Perth, the seat of Major R.M. Patton, there were in 1892 two specimens little inferior to those at Murthly. (H.J.E.)

 

 

TSUGA ALBERTIANA, Western Hemlock

 

Tsuga Albertiana, Sénéclauze, Conif. 18 (1867); Kent, Veitch's Man. Coniferæ, 459 (1900).

Tsuga Mertensiana, Carrière, Traité Conif. 250 (1867); Masters, Gard. Chron. xxiii. 179, fig. 35 (1885).

Tsuga heterophylla, Sargent, Silva N. Amer, xii. 73, t. 605 (1898), and Trees N. Amer. 50 (1905).

Abies heterophylla, Rafinesque, Atlantic Jour. i. 119 (1832).

Abies Mertensiana, Gordon, Pinetum, 18 (1858).

Abies Albertiana, A. Murray, Proc. Roy. Hort. Soc. iii. 149 (1863).

 

A large tree, attaining in America 200 to 250 feet in height and 20 feet or more in girth, narrowly pyramidal in habit. Bark of old trees reddish brown, and deeply divided into broad, flat, connected scaly ridges. Young shoots whitish grey, and covered with short pubescence, intermixed with scattered long straggling hairs. Leaves pectinately arranged, the shorter leaves on the upper side of the branchlets, those in the median line above often parallel to the twig and directed forwards, exposing their stomatic surfaces. The leaves are ¼ to ¾ inch long, linear-oblong, uniform in width, serrulate in margin, dark green above, with a median groove continued up to the rounded apex; under surface with inconspicuous midrib and two broad white stomatic bands, which are ill defined on the outer side, there being no distinct marginal green bands. Buds greyish brown, ovoid, with an obtuse and flattened apex; scales keeled and pubescent.

Cones sessile, about one inch long, ovoid, composed of five series of scales, each series with six to seven scales. Scales spathulate, nearly twice as long as broad, wider in the upper half, abruptly narrowed below, rounded with a slightly acute apex, entire and slightly bevelled in margin, striate and slightly pubescent on the outer surface. Bract small, concealed, lozenge-shaped, pubescent and keeled. Seed with a very long wing, decurrent on the outer side of the seed to the base; seed with wing about three-fourths the length of the scale.

The young seedling has three to four cotyledons, which are a little more than 4 inch in length, gradually tapering to an acute apex, sessile, flattened beneath, the upper surface two-sided and bearing stomata, margin entire. The young stem is pubescent and bears first two to three whorls of true leaves (three in each whorl), which are serrulate, shortly stalked, and bearing stomata on their upper surface. These are succeeded by leaves borne spirally. The cotyledons are supported by a caulicle, reddish and glabrous, about an inch in length. which terminates in a very slender flexuose tap-root.

The name Albertiana has been chosen, as it appears to have been published as early as that of Mertensiana under the correct genus Tsuga. Tsuga Mertensiana is now the name given by American botanists to Tsuga Pattoniana, and its adoption would cause considerable confusion. Albertiana, never having been applied to any other species, is correct on the grounds of common sense as well as of priority.(A.H.)

 

Distribution

On the west coast of North America it extends southwards from south-eastern Alaska, where it forms the greater part of the great coast forest, which reaches from sea-level up to about 2000 feet, and is associated with Menzies's spruce.

In British Columbia it is very abundant on the coast, and extends as far inland as the heavy rainfall reaches up the valley of the Frazer, on the Gold and Selkirk ranges, and east of the Columbia valley nearly up to the continental divide.^[12] In Vancouver's Island it forms with the Douglas fir and red cedar a large though not economically important part of the forest. In Washington and Oregon it is also one of the principal elements of the forest, of which, in the Cascade Forest Reserve, it forms about nine per cent of the timber,^[13] and extends up to 5000 feet, crossing the watershed of the coast range in lat. 45°.

In the drier parts of southern Oregon it becomes rare, and though it occurs in the redwood forests of northern California as far south as Cape Mendocino, I did not see it on the Siskyou mountains or on Mount Shasta. In the interior it is found in the wetter parts of northern Montana, Idaho, and in southern British Columbia, where, in company with Douglas spruce, Picea Engelmanni, Abies grandis, and Larix occidentalis, it sometimes forms a considerable part of the forest, and reaches up to 6000 feet in the Coeur d'Alène mountains, though I did not see it in the valley of the Blackfoot river, near Missoula, where the climate is drier.

It attains its finest development on the coasts of Washington and Oregon, where Sargent says that it attains 200 feet in height, with a stem 20 to 30 feet in girth. Plummer, in his Report on the Mount Rainier Forest Reserve,^[14] says (p. 101) that it attains an extreme diameter of 6 feet, with a height of 250 feet, of which half to two-thirds is crown. The largest that I actually measured, however, on my visit to Mount Rainier in August 1904, were under 200 feet, with a girth of 12 to 14 feet, and these were growing mixed with Tsuga Pattoniana at an elevation of 4000 to 5000 feet.

In the Cascade Reserve Forest of northern Oregon, near Bridal Veil, at about 3500 feet elevation, I measured and Mr. Kiser photographed a tree 175 feet high and 16 feet 6 inches in girth, with a clean bole of about 60 feet, but I am unable to reproduce this, as the negative has not arrived.

The growth of seedlings in all the forests that I saw was exceptionally good. Mr. H.D. Langille says,^[15] p. 36:—

"Certain cone-bearers are better adapted for restocking than others, though the reasons are not apparent. For example, young lovely firs (A. amabilis) are abundant everywhere within the zone of that species, whilst noble fir (A. nobilis), having a cone and seed of very similar size and nature, seldom germinates, and a seedling of that species is rarely seen.

"From many observations made in the zone of the hemlock and lovely fir, it is apparent that these trees, from their ability to thrive under the most adverse conditions, are rapidly superseding the others, and will, under natural conditions, be the sole components of the alpine forests. It is a striking fact that, upon many areas where from 50 to 100 per cent of the present forest is red fir (Douglas), the reproduction is entirely hemlock and lovely fir. Should these forests be destroyed by fire it is probable that red fir would rival these species in restocking the burn; but under natural conditions it is evident that the red fir will be displaced, and the limits of the alpine trees become much lower than at present.

'The yellow pine (P. ponderosa), in some instances, does good work in stocking open spots in the timber, but seldom extends far beyond the parent tree. In the yellow pine forests most of the young growth is red or white fir (A. grandis), which, taking advantage of the shade and moisture afforded by the yellow pine cover, is growing rapidly, and will in time form a larger percentage of the forest than it has in the past."

I can confirm this from my own observation both in the Cascade Forest and in Vancouver's Island. The seedlings germinate most freely when they fall on the moss-covered rotting trunk of a fallen tree, along which a complete row of young trees often grows; and Plate 59, vol. i. shows a tree of this species, probably 150 years old, whose roots had completely enclosed the still sound trunk of a red cedar (Thuya plicata). A valuable paper^[16] by Mr. E.T. Allen, dealing with the western hemlock from a forestry point of view, has been published by the U.S. Bureau of Forestry.

 

Cultivation

It was introduced in 1851 by Jeffrey, and named in 1863 by Murray, at the request of Queen Victoria, in memory of the late Prince Consort, who was a patron of the Oregon Association, and President of the Royal Horticultural Society.^[17]

In grace, freedom of growth, and adaptability to varied conditions of culture, in England this, as an ornamental tree, is second to none, and much superior to any other hemlock. Though it has been in cultivation little over fifty years it has already attained a height of about 90 feet in such widely distant counties as Kent, Devonshire, and Perthshire.

The only soils on which it will not thrive are chalk, limestone, and heavy clay, and though it enjoys all the moisture that the wettest parts of England afford, it wants, like all its congeners, a well-drained soil and a sheltered situation.

It ripens seed abundantly in England, and has sown itself in several localities, especially at Blackmoor, the seat of the Earl of Selborne, where there are several self-sown trees, of which the best, growing on the lower greensand formation, is, at about fifteen years old, 10 to 12 feet high, though the parent trees do not exceed about 65 feet.

In Fulmodestone Wood, on Lord Leicester's estate in Norfolk, I have also seen self-sown seedlings; and though they are very slow in growth for the first four or five

 

Plate 59: Western Hemlock growing on a fallen log of Giant Thuya in America

Plate 59.

WESTERN HEMLOCK GROWING ON FALLEN LOG OF GIANT THUYA IN AMERICA

 

 

Plate 68: Western Hemlock at Dropmore

Plate 68.

WESTERN HEMLOCK AT DROPMORE

 

 

Plate 69: Western Hemlock at Murthly

Plate 69.

WESTERN HEMLOCK AT MURTHLY

 

years, yet if kept moist and shaded in a mixture of sand and leaf-mould they may be planted out at five to six years old, with every hope of success.

So far as my experience goes, trees grown from cuttings are not so satisfactory, and there is no excuse for this practice except the saving of trouble, as seedlings are raised in quantity at a very low cost from home-grown seed in Scotland, as I have seen in the nursery at Murthly Castle.

 

Remarkable Trees

Among so many fine trees of this species, all of about the same age, it is hard to choose, but perhaps the largest^[18] which we have measured is at Hafodunos, in Denbighshire, which in 1904 was found by Henry to be 94 feet 6 inches by 8 feet 5 inches, and this tree has also produced self-sown seedlings.

At Dropmore there is a very beautiful tree of the spreading type (Plate 68), about 70 feet by 6 feet. At Hemsted, in Kent, I was shown by Lord Cranbrook, in 1905, a tree which is perhaps as tall as any in England, but which, growing in a hole and surrounded by other trees, it was not possible to measure accurately. It is, however, about 90 feet by 4 feet 11 inches, well shaped and growing fast.

At Penllergare, near Swansea, the seat of Sir J.T.D. Llewellyn, Bt., are several fine trees growing in a sheltered valley, which were planted about fifty years ago in company with Tsuga canadensis. They are now from 70 to 80 feet high, whilst the best of the eastern hemlock is only 50 feet, and the difference in habit of the two trees is very well shown.

A very large tree, reported^[19] to be 110 feet high, is growing at Singleton Abbey, near Swansea, the residence of Lord Swansea, but I have been unable as yet to get confirmation of the height stated. At Castlehill, N. Devon, are several fine trees, the best of which, on a steep bank above a waterfall, where it is somewhat drawn up by beeches, is 90 feet by 6 feet 7 inches. At Carclew, Cornwall, is a fine tree, which in 1902 was 8o feet by 6 feet 3 inches, and in 1905, 82 feet by 6 feet 6 inches, both measurements taken by myself.

At Barton, Suffolk, a young and very thriving tree, shut in by tall beeches and conifers, in 1905 was 80 feet by 4 feet 3 inches, a remarkable instance of height as compared with girth.

In Scotland the tree flourishes exceedingly, and has been planted in many places. Perhaps the tallest is one at Castle Menzies, which in 1904 I made about go feet by 7 feet 8 inches, though the gardener thinks it is taller; but one of the most beautiful for its shape, graceful habit, and situation, grows by a deep shady burn on the road from Dunkeld to Murthly Castle, and is about 70 feet by 5 feet (Plate 69), and there are many other fine trees in the grounds there. A tree at Riccarton, near Edinburgh, planted in 1855, measured in 1905, 73 feet by 7 feet 1 inch. A very large tree, measuring in 1907, 10 feet in girth, is reported by Major P. J. Waldron, to be growing at Hallyburton, Coupar-Angus, the seat of Mr. W. Graham Menzies.

The only place where the tree is reported to have been killed by frost is in the plantations at the Cairnies, Perthshire, where Hunter says (p. 364) that in the severe winter of 1880-81 many were injured and some killed. Two of the finest specimens in Scotland are, however, growing in the grounds at this place.^[20]

In Ireland the best specimen we know of is one at Glenstal, Co. Limerick, which measured in 1903, 78 feet high by 7½ feet in girth. One of exactly the same height by 6 feet in girth is growing at Kilmacurragh, Co. Wicklow; and around it are several self-sown seedlings. At Mount Usher, in the same county, there is a fine specimen, 28 years old, from seed, which was 57 feet high by 4 feet 5 inches in 1903.

 

Timber

The timber of the western hemlock has not until recently been much valued, or cut for lumber, on account of its supposed inferiority to that of the Douglas spruce, and is often left standing by loggers, but the increasing scarcity of lumber in some districts has led to its being converted into boards, and it is now largely used for the construction of buildings. Sargent says that it is light, hard, and tough, stronger, more durable, and more easily worked than the other American hemlocks. Allen^[21] says that in strength it cannot be classed with oak, red fir, or longleaf pine, nor is it suitable for heavy construction, especially where exposed to the weather; but it possesses all the strength requisite for ordinary building material. It is largely used in Washington for mill frames.

At Mr. Bradley's sawmill at Bridal Veil, Oregon, I saw it being manufactured, and brought away a sample which quite bears out Sargent's high opinion of it. If such timber existed in Japan or in Europe, I am sure it would be highly valued for joinery, but so far as J can learn none has yet been shipped to Europe. Hemlock timber" has been exported to Manila, and is likely to prove of considerable value in the tropics for housebuilding and indoor finish, as it appears to be free from the attacks of white ants. The wood is distasteful to rodents, and is used on that account by farmers for the construction of oat-bins.

The bark, according to Sargent, forms the most valuable tanning material produced on the west coast of North America, and the inner bark is eaten by the Indians of Alaska.

James M. Macoun^[22] says of it—"The abundance of other wood of better quality has prevented the hemlock from coming into general use, and the same prejudice exists in British Columbia against the western tree that prevailed until very recently against hemlock in eastern Canada. Though its grain is coarse, western hemlock is for many purposes just as serviceable as other woods which cost more. The bark is rich in tannin, but is too thin to be extensively used while there is such an abundance of Douglas fir in the same region." (H.J.E.)

 

TSUGA CANADENSIS, Hemlock or Hemlock Spruce

 

Tsuga canadensis, Carrière, Traité Conif. 189 (1855); Sargent, Silva N. Amer. xii. 63, t. 603 (1898), and Trees N. Amer. 48 (1905); Kent, Veitch's Man. Coniferæ, 463 (1900).

Pinus canadensis, Linnæus, Sp. Pl. 1421 (1763); Lambert, Genus Pinus, i. t. 32 (1803).

Abies canadensis, Michaux, Fl. Bor. Am. ii. 206 (1803), and Hist. Arb. Amer. i. 137, t. 13 (1810); Loudon, Arb. et Frut. Brit. iv. 2322 (1838).

Picea canadensis, Link, Linnæa, xv. 523 (1841).

 

A tree attaining in America over 100 feet in height, but usually only 60 to 70 feet, with a girth of 12 feet as a maximum. Bark of old trees brownish and deeply divided into narrow rounded ridges, covered with appressed scales.

Young shoots greyish in colour and covered with short stiff pubescence. Leaves pectinately arranged, the shorter ones on the upper side of the shoot; those on the median line above pointing forwards, appressed to the twig, and displaying their white under surfaces. They are ⅓ to ⅔ inch long, linear, usually broadest towards the base and tapering to the apex, which is rounded or acute; distinctly and sharply serrulate in margin; dark green above with a median groove often not continued to the apex; lower surface with distinct midrib and two narrow well-defined white stomatic bands, the edges being pure green in colour. Buds brown, ovoid, pointed; scales ciliate, pubescent, keeled, acute.

Cones, ½ to ¾ inch long, ovoid, on slender puberulous stalks nearly ¼ inch long, composed of five series of scales, with about five scales in each series. Scales orbicular oblong, nearly as broad as long, entire and slightly bevelled in margin, striate, glabrescent in the exposed part. Bract small, concealed, lozenge-shaped. Seed with an oblong wing, decurrent half-way on its outer side. The seed with wing about two-thirds the length of the scale.

 

Varieties

A considerable number of horticultural varieties are known, no less than fourteen being described by Beissner. Some of these are variegated forms, as var. argentea or albo-spica, in which the tips of the young shoots are whitish. Others differ in habit and stature, as var. pendula, with pendulous branches, and var. Sargentii,^[23] a flat-topped bushy form of compact habit with short pendulous branches. The latter was found about forty years ago on the Fishkill Mountains in New York, and was first cultivated and made known by Mr. H. W. Sargent. One of the original plants, growing on the Howland estate, in Matteawan, New York, is now about 25 feet across. Grafted plants of this variety form in a few years an erect stem, and lose the dense low habit which is the charm of the original seedlings.^[23]

Var. parvifolia, as cultivated at Kew, is a shrub, with stout branchlets, and very short leaves, about 4 inch long, which spread radially outwards from the shoot. (A.H.)

 

Distribution

In the colder parts of New England and Canada the hemlock is one of the most characteristic trees of the virgin forest, and extends, according to Sargent, from Nova Scotia and New Brunswick westward through Ontario to eastern Minnesota, southwards through Delaware, southern Michigan, and central Wisconsin, and along the Appalachian Mountains to north-western Alabama. He says that it attains its largest size in the south, in the mountain valleys of North Carolina and Tennessee, and gives its size as usually 60 or 70 and occasionally 100 feet in height, with a trunk 2 to 4 feet in diameter; but Pinchot and Ashe (loc. cit. p. 134) give 110 feet with a diameter of 6 feet as its extreme size, with a beautiful picture of it (pl. xix.). When, however, I was at Ottawa in September 1904 I visited, in company with Mr. James M. Macoun of the Geological Survey, a forest near Chelsea, in the Gatineau valley, where several hemlocks of nearly 100 feet were standing, mixed with birches, maples, and other hardwoods, and found a fallen tree which must have been at least 125 feet, and perhaps 135 feet long, though the top was too rotten to follow it out to the end. Mr. Macoun, however, said he had never seen one so large before.

It often grows on rocky ridges, where it forms dense groves on the north side, and loves the steep banks of river gorges. Henry visited in 1906 Pisgah Mountain, near Hinsdale, in New Hampshire, where there remain on the estate of Mr. Ansell Dickinson about 700 acres of virgin forest. This mainly consists of a mixture of hemlock and hardwoods, with white pine occurring here and there singly and in small groups; though on one or two areas of a few acres the white pine and hemlock form a pure coniferous stand. The largest hemlock seen measured 113 feet by 7 feet 10 inches, with a clean stem of only 30 feet, being much branched though densely crowded by other trees. A great many small hemlocks throughout the forest formed an undergrowth, and had been suppressed in growth, one which was ¾ inch in diameter and 10 feet high showing 65 annual rings.

In the Arnold Arboretum, near Boston, is a fine natural grove of this tree, called Hemlock Hill, which gives a very good idea of its normal growth in New England. The average height here is 60 to 70 feet by 3 to 4 feet, and the best that I measured at the bottom of the hill was 80 feet by 4 feet 6 inches. These trees were rather crowded, and had clean boles for 15 to 30 feet up.

The growth of the tree is very slow, and Sargent says that the specimen of its timber in the Jessup Collection in the American Museum of Natural History at New York (which is the most complete that has ever been formed of the woods of any country) is only 13½ inches in diameter inside the bark, though it shows 164 annual rings, of which the sapwood, 2 inches thick, has twenty-nine.

It seeds freely, but the seedlings do not germinate well in the open or on land which has been recently burned over, and seem to succeed best on a mossy stump or fallen log, where they must often remain eight to ten years before their roots reach the earth. According to Sargent they are only three or four inches high at four years old, under favourable conditions, and are easily destroyed.

 

 

Plate 70: Hemlock Spruce at Foxley

Plate 70.

HEMLOCK SPRUCE AT FOXLEY

 

 

Cultivation

Though introduced by Peter Collinson about 1736,^[24] and at one time planted in almost every garden as an ornamental tree, the hemlock is rarely seen in Europe in a condition to remind the American of it as he knows it at home. Of late years it has been superseded by more modern and faster growing introductions.

I cannot exactly say what are the conditions which suit it best in this country, because I have not seen it planted in the shady, damp, and rocky gorges which it likes at home; but a deep light soil, free from lime and well drained, and a northern aspect, seem to suit it best in gardens. Its graceful habit and perfect hardiness should recommend it to all lovers of trees. It has a general tendency to fork near the ground, and this can only be checked by crowding it when young, or perhaps to some extent by careful pruning, as Loudon says that it bears the knife well, and is used for hedges in American nurseries; though I should consider either common spruce or arbor vitææ much better suited for the purpose here.

It ripens seed freely, but the plants I have raised were so small that frost and March winds destroyed them before I learned the necessity of protecting them; and in future I would imitate nature, and sow them on a mossy piece of half-rotten wood, or in a mixture of sand and leaf mould in a shaded frame.

 

Remarkable Trees

By far the most remarkable specimens of this tree which exist in England, or, as I believe, in Europe, are at Foxley, Herefordshire, the seat of the Rev. G.H. Davenport, which are believed to have been planted by Sir Uvedale Price, who was once the owner of this place. He was born in 1747, and died in 1828. In Nash wood, about half a mile from the house, on a rich soil of old red sandstone formation, in a dell facing south-west, a number of these trees are growing, which, though not quite so large as the tree at Studley, average about 55 feet high by 8 to 10 in girth, and although their trunks are not so straight and clean as in an American forest, are nearly all sound and healthy. I measured twenty of these trees in July 1906 and found the largest, the only one which was forked near the ground, to be 10 feet in girth. Another was 9 ft. 10 in., and had a trunk which would contain from 120 to 130 cubic feet. The others ranged from 7 to 9½ feet at 5 feet from the ground, averaging over 8 feet, and were mostly clear of branches, or nearly so, for 15 to 30 feet from the ground. The dense shade of these trees keeps the soil quite free from vegetation below them, but I saw no seedlings in the grove. Though Mr. Davenport was good enough to have a considerable clearing made in order to get a better view of the trees, and Mr. Foster went to Foxley on purpose to photograph them, the difficulty of the subject was so great that the prints taken (Plate 70) do not show them as well as I could wish.

The largest tree which I have seen in England is at Studley Royal, not far below Fountains Abbey, and close to two very tall spruce. This, though hard to measure correctly owing to its crowded position, which makes a satisfactory illustration impossible, is over 80 feet high and 11 feet in girth, but is forked at about 7 feet from the ground.

The next best is at Strathfieldsaye, a very spreading tree in damp soil, also forking near the ground. The two stems measure 9 feet 6 inches and 8 feet 3 inches, and the height in 1903 was about 75 feet, the branches weeping to the ground on all sides (Plate 71). At Althorp there is a fine old specimen on the lawn, of a more upright type, which in 1903 was 63 feet by 8 feet 10 inches. At Walcot, in Shropshire, the seat of the Earl of Powis, is one of the best grown trees I have seen, with a bole about 25 feet high, and measuring 60 feet by 8 feet 8 inches. At Mr. Heelas' residence, near Reading, part of the old White Knights estate, is a tree, probably planted 150 years ago, which Henry in 1904 found to be 67 feet by 8 feet. At Arley Castle there is a fine tree dividing into three stems, of which the largest is 6 feet 7 inches in girth and nearly 70 feet high.

At Hardwick, Bury St. Edmunds, there is a tree, forked at 30 feet up, 60 feet by 5 feet ro inches. At Beauport, Sussex, a tree measured in 1904, 65 feet by 7 feet. At Osberton, Notts, the seat of Mr. F. Savile Foljambe, there is a remarkably spreading old tree about 42 feet high, and dividing near the ground into three stems, each about 6 feet in girth. It has some layered branches which are over 20 feet high, and the total circumference is no less than 80 paces. Bunbury, Arboretum Notes, p. 140, mentions as the largest hemlock in the country one growing at Bowood, Wiltshire, the seat of the Marquess of Lansdowne, which, however, cannot now be found.

In Scotland, where the tree should succeed well, I have seen none of great size, except the tree at Dunkeld, which is growing in a thick wood of conifers mixed with beech on rocky ground, close to the Hermitage bridge. This is mentioned by Hunter as being 80 feet high by 1o feet in girth. Mr. D. Keir twenty years later made it 85 feet by 11 feet, and when he showed it to me in 1906 I found that, though the top is not easy to see, it is probably as much as 90 feet, and looks as if it would grow taller. It divides at about 12 feet into several stems, and is believed to be 140 to 150 years old.

At Dalkeith there was in 1891 a tree 42 feet high by 10 feet 6 inches in girth; and at Buchanan Castle, Stirlingshire, the seat of the Duke of Montrose, one measuring 45 feet by 6 feet 10 inches.^[25]

In Ireland the largest known to us is one at Carton, the seat of the Duke of Leinster, which in 1903 was 45 feet by 6½ feet.

 

Timber

Opinions as to the value of this wood differ a good deal, and I have no personal experience in the matter. Sargent says that it is light, soft, not strong, brittle coarse, crooked-grained, difficult to work, liable to wind-shake and splinter, and not

 

Plate 71: Hemlock Spruce at Strathfieldsaye

Plate 71.

HEMLOCK SPRUCE AT STRATHFIELDSAYE

 

durable when exposed to the air; but that it is now largely manufactured into coarse lumber for the outside finish of buildings, and is also used for railway ties and water-pipes. James M. Macoun, in The Forest Wealth of Canada, p. 82, says: "Though little inferior to white pine as rough lumber, a prejudice has for a long time existed against this wood, which is only now dying out. As a coarse lumber it to-day commands almost as high a price as pine. It is one of our best woods for wharves and docks, and great quantities are used annually for piles." It is not, so far as I can learn, imported into Europe. The value of its bark, however, for tanning heavy leather has long been known, and it is used more largely than any other in Canada and the Eastern States of America, often mixed with oak bark in order to modify the red colour of the leather tanned with it alone.^[26]

Canada pitch, made from the resin of this tree, and oil of hemlock, distilled from its twigs, were formerly used to some extent in medicine, but are not now of any commercial importance. (H.J.E.)

 

TSUGA CAROLINIANA, Carolina Hemlock

 

Tsuga Caroliniana, Engelmann, Coulter's Bot. Gazette, vi. 223 (1881); Sargent, Gard. Chron. xxvi. 780, fig. 153 (1886), Silva N. Amer. xii. 69, t. 604 (1898), and Trees N. Amer. 49 (1905); Kent, Veitch's Man. Coniferæ, 466 (1900).

 

A tree attaining in America 70 feet in height with a girth of 6 feet. Bark reddish brown, and deeply divided into broad, flat, connected scaly ridges. Young shoots shining grey, with scattered short pubescence in the furrows between the glabrous leaf-bases. Leaves pectinately arranged, those on the upper side of the branchlet shorter than the others, ¼ to ¾ inch long, linear-oblong, uniform in breadth or slightly narrowed towards the rounded apex, which is occasionally minutely emarginate; dark green and shining above, with a median groove either continued up to the apex or falling short of it; lower surface with distinct midrib and two narrow, well-defined white stomatic bands, the edges being green; margin entire. Buds reddish brown, ovoid, sharp-pointed; scales indistinctly keeled and pubescent.

Cones on short stout stalks, pendulous or deflected, cylindrical-oblong, 1 to 1½ inch long, consisting of five series of scales, five scales in each series. Scales oblong-orbicular, rounded and slightly narrowed at the apex, pubescent externally, edge thin and bevelled. Bract concealed, wedge-shaped at the base, rounded at the apex. Seed with a long wing, which is decurrent half-way down its outer side.

Tsuga Caroliniana appears to be the American representative of Tsuga diversifolia, and is remarkable for its limited distribution. It occurs at elevations of 2500 to 3000 feet, usually on dry rocky banks of mountain streams along the Blue Ridge, extending from south-western Virginia through South Carolina to northern Georgia. Sargent states that it occurs either in small groves or mingled with other species, and describes it as a beautiful tree of compact pyramidal habit, with dense dark-green lustrous foliage. Elwes saw it on the Blue Ridge in 1893, and brought home young plants, which, however, died in a year or two.

This tree was discovered in 1850 by Professor L.R. Gibbes. It was first raised in the Arnold Arboretum in 1881, and has proved there quite hardy. It was introduced from thence to England in 1886. There are two or three small specimens in the collection at Kew which are three or four feet in height and have a bushy, spreading habit. This species, judging from the slow rate of growth at Kew, is not likely to attain to timber size in England, and we know of no trees of any size living in this country. (A.H.)

 

TSUGA BRUNONIANA, Himalayan Hemlock

 

Tsuga Brunoniana, Carrière, Traité Conif. 188 (1855); Hook. f., Gard. Chron. xxvi. 72, fig. 14 (1886), and Flora Brit. India, v. 654 (1888); Masters, Gard. Chron. xxvi. 500, fig. 101 (1886); Kent, Veitch's Man. Coniferæ, 462 (1900); Gamble, Man. Indian Timbers, 718 (1902); Brandis, Indian Trees, 693 (1906).

Tsuga dumosa, Sargent, Silva N. Amer. xii. 60 (1898).

Pinus dumosa, D. Don, Prod. Fl. Nepal. 55 (1825).

Pinus Brunoniana, Wallich, Pl. Asiat. Rar. iii. 24, t. 247 (1832).

Abies Brunoniana, Lindley, Penny Cyclop. i. 31 (1833).

Abies dumosa, Loudon, Arb. et Frut. Brit. iv. 2325 (1838), and Brandis, Forest Flor. N.W. India, 527 (1874).

 

A tree forming in the Himalayas, according to Hooker, a stately blunt pyramid, with branches spreading like the cedar, but not so stiff, and drooping gracefully on all sides, attaining 120 feet in height and 28 feet in girth. Incultivation in England it assumes a bushy habit, and never makes a clean stem, the trunk being concealed by the dense pendulous branches.

Bark thick and rough. Branchlets light brown in colour with a short and not very dense pubescence. Leaves long, 1 to 1¼ inch, narrow linear, gradually tapering towards the acute and recurved apex, serrulate in margin; upper surface dark green and deeply grooved; lower surface silvery white, the bands of stomata extending almost to the margins. Buds globose, flattened on the top; scales ovate, acute, pubescent.

Cones sessile, ovoid, an inch long, composed of about twenty-five woody scales, which are nearly orbicular, vertically striate, shining, showing externally a thickened ridge a little distance from and parallel to the thin entire margin; bract concealed. Seed two-thirds the length of the scale, with an oblong-ovate wing, which is decurrent on the outer side of the seed to its base.

 

 

Plate 72: Himalayan Hemlock at Boconnoc

Plate 72.

HIMALAYAN HEMLOCK AT BOCONNOC

 

Tsuga Brunoniana occurs in the Himalayas, from Kumaon to Bhotan, at altitudes varying from 8000 to 10,500 feet. Franchet considers that certain Chinese specimens constitute a distinct variety of the species, which he has named var. chinensis.^[27] These were collected in N.E. Szechuan by Père Farges, and in the mountains of western Yunnan at 9000 feet altitude by Père Delavay. Diels^[28] also identifies with this variety specimens collected by Von Rosthorn in Szechuan. I have seen no Chinese examples, and Mr. E. H. Wilson considers that there is only one species of Tsuga in the mountains of Szechuan, which is Tsuga chinensis, Masters. Small plants of the Chinese Tsuga are now in cultivation at Coombe Wood; and are as yet too young to entitle us to speak definitely concerning its affinities. (A.H.)

In the interior of Sikkim I saw this beautiful tree in great perfection in the same forests where Sir Joseph Hooker so well describes it,^[29] during my journey with the late W.E. Blanford to the Tibetan frontier in 1870. It occurs first in the Lachen valley at about 8000 feet in an extremely moist summer climate, where snow lies for two or three months in winter, growing in company with Picea Morindoides, Abies Webbiana, and, higher up, with Larix Griffithii, in a forest unrivalled in the temperate region for its botanical and zoological wealth; where it commonly attains a height of 100 to 120 feet. Afterwards, on the path from Lachoong to the Tunkralah, I saw even grander specimens, one of which, as measured by Sir J. Hooker, was over 120 feet high by 28 feet in girth. In these almost pathless forests it is covered with ferns and lichens and forms a graceful pyramidal tree with very drooping branches, and reaches an elevation of about 10,000 feet. On the outer ranges it is not so large, but extends into Bhotan, where Griffith found it from 6500 to 9500 feet. It probably occurs throughout Nepal and in the N.W. Himalaya, as far west as Kumaon, where it is a smaller tree and of little economic value, though in Sikkim the bark is used for roofing huts.

The Himalayan hemlock was introduced into England in 1838, according to Loudon,^[30] but is rarely seen, except in a stunted state, with several branching stems, and suffering from the absence of sufficient moisture. Like most of the Himalayan conifers, it grows too early and is injured by spring frosts; but in a few favoured districts of Cornwall and Ireland it seems more at home and has attained considerable size and beauty.

The best specimen that I have seen is at Boconnoc in Cornwall, the seat of J, B. Fortescue, Esq. (Plate 72). This tree measures about 53 feet high by 12 feet in girth near the ground, where it branches into several stems, which spread to about 70 feet in diameter. When I saw it in April 1905 it was covered with cones, from which I have raised many young plants.

There is a rather fine tree at Dropmore, planted in 1847, but not so large or healthy as the one described above; and at Beauport, near Battle, Sussex, there is also a fair specimen.

At Southampton,^[31] in the Red Lodge nursery belonging to Mr. W. H. Rogers, there was a tree twenty-five years old in 1884, about 20 feet high, which bore cones in profusion. At Kew a specimen planted in a sheltered position lived for many years, but ultimately succumbed. Sir Joseph Hooker^[32] knew of no good specimen nearer London than one on a south slope near Leith Hill in a very sheltered and well-watered valley.

At Fota, in the S.W. of Ireland, the seat of Lord Barrymore, Henry measured a tree about 4o feet by 4 feet 10 inches in 1904; and there are trees at Kilmacurragh and Powerscourt, in Co. Wicklow, which are about 30 feet high, all of very branching bushy habit, and with several main stems.

Sargent^[33] has never seen a specimen in the United States. (H.J.E.)

 

TSUGA SIEBOLDII, Siebold's Hemlock

 

Tsuga Sieboldii, Carrière, Traité Conif. 186 (1855); Masters, Jour. Linn. Soc. (Bot.), xviii. 512 (1881); Mayr, Abiet. des Jap. Reiches, 59, t. iv. fig. 12 (1890); Kent, Veitch's Man. Coniferæ, 472 (1900).

Tsuga Tsuja, A. Murray, Proc. R. Hort. Soc. ii. 508, ff. 141–153 (1862).

Tsuga Araragi, Koehne, Deutsche Dendrologie, 10 (1893), and Sargent, Garden and Forest, x. 491, fig. 62 (1897).

Pinus Araragi, Siebold, Verhandl. Batav. Genoot. Konst. Wet. xii. 12 (1830).

Abies Tsuga, Siebold et Zuccarini, Fl. Jap. ii. 14, t. 106 (1842).

Abies Araragi, Loudon, Trees and Shrubs, 1036 (1842).

 

A tree attaining in Japan about 100 feet in height and 12 feet in girth, forming in England a small tree with a short bole and a dense crown of foliage, with numerous branches and pendulous branchlets.

Young shoots greyish in colour and quite glabrous. Leaves pectinately arranged, variable in size, the smaller on the upper side of the shoot, some of these being directed outwards at right angles to the general plane of the foliage. They are oblong, uniform in width, ¼ to 1 inch long, shining and dark green above with a median furrow continued to the rounded and emarginate apex; lower surface with green midrib and two narrow well-defined white bands of stomata; margin quite entire. Buds reddish, ovoid, slightly acute at the apex: scales glabrous on the surface, ciliate in margin.

Cones elongated ovoid, on a stalk about ¼ inch long, pendulous or deflected, composed of five series of orbicular scales, which are rounded at the apex and at the base and have a slightly bevelled margin. Bract included, very short and bifid. Seed with a long wing decurrent half-way along its outer side.

This tree has been much confused with the other Japanese species, from which it is very distinct in botanical characters. Koehne's proposed name, Tsuga Araragi, is not adopted by us, the name Sieboldii being the first one under the correct genus Tsuga. (A.H.)

 

TSUGA DIVERSIFOLIA, Japanese Hemlock

 

Tsuga diversifolia, Masters, Jour. Linn. Soc. (Bot.) xviii. 514 (1881); Mayr, Abiet. des Jap. Reiches 61, t. xiv. fig. 13 (1890); Sargent, Garden and Forest, vi. 495, fig. 73 (1893), and x. 491, fig. 63 (1897); Kent, Veitch's Man. Coniferæ, 467 (1900).

Abies diversifolia, Maximowicz, Mél. Biol. vi. 373 (1867).

 

A smaller tree than Siebold's hemlock, which it resembles in habit.

Young shoots pubescent, the pubescence occurring on both the leaf-bases and the intervening furrows. Leaves arranged as in Tsuga Sieboldii, but considerably shorter, scarcely exceeding ½ inch in length, oblong, uniform in breadth, shining and dark green above with a median furrow continued to the rounded and emarginate apex; lower surface with green midrib and two narrow well-defined white bands of stomata; margin entire. Buds red, pyriform, flattened above; scales rounded at the apex, minutely pubescent and ciliate.

Cones subsessile, pendent or deflected, ovoid; scales shining, orbicular-oblong, truncate at the base, with edge slightly bevelled and thickened. Bract minute, concealed, rhomboid. Seed with a short terminal wing, which is not decurrent along its side. (A.H.)

 

Distribution of the Japanese Tsugas

In Japan I saw both species in their native forests; but so far as I could learn they are not distinguished by the foresters and are both called Tsuga (pronounced tsunga). By the Japanese botanists Tsuga Sieboldii is termed Tsuga, the other species being named Kuro-tsuga or Kome-tsuga. Of the two, the latter apparently has a more northern range than Tsuga Sieboldii. I saw it in the forest round Lake Yumoto at 4000 to 5000 feet elevation, where it is a picturesque and graceful tree of no great size. Both species, however, according to Shirasawa, are found in this district. Tsuga diversifolia also occurred high up in the Atera valley. Further south in the Kisogawa valley and at Koyasan I saw Tsuga Sieboldii, which at 2000 to 3000 feet attains a large size, growing scattered in mixed forests and not gregariously, like the other species at Lake Yumoto. I measured a tree at Koyasan, which had been felled; it was over 100 feet in height, of which half was free from branches, the butt being about 3 feet in diameter. I estimated it as 250 to 300 years old, though the growth had been so slow that I could not count the rings beyond 150. The wood of this tree, as I was told by the chief priest of the Gemyo-in temple, who was my host at Koyasan, is even better than that of Hinoki (Cupressus obtusa); and much of the wood used in building the temple had been Tsuga. Old trees, however, are now so scarce that the timber cannot be obtained in quantity. I bought some beautiful boards cut from it at Osaka, which have a pale yellow colour and very fine wavy figure. The wood is also made into shingles, which are said to last about forty years, and it has lately been used for paper-making. The bark is used for tanning fishing-nets, and the timber sells in Tokyo at thirty-five to forty yen per 100 cubic feet.^[34] The growth of the tree from seed is very slow at first as in the allied species.

 

History and Cultivation

Tsuga Sieboldii was introduced into Europe by Siebold in 1850. Cones both of this species and of Tsuga diversifolia were brought from Japan by John Gould Vetch in 1861, and the latter species was sent out under the name Abies Tsuga, var. nana. Specimens cultivated at Kew as Tsuga Sieboldii, var. nana, belong to Tsuga diversifolia.

Though both species have been introduced long enough to prove their hardiness in favoured parts of the South of England, we have never seen even a moderately large tree, and doubt much if either species will attain timber size in this country. The Japanese hemlocks seem to prefer a light moist rich soil, free from lime, with shade and shelter from cold winds. They will not grow at all on the limestone soil of Colesborne. The best specimen we know is in the garden of Mr. W. H. Griffiths at Campden, Gloucestershire, and is about 15 feet high. It bore cones in 1905.

Sargent^[35] says that Tsuga Sieboldii is one of the most graceful and satisfactory of the exotic conifers cultivated in American gardens, where it promises to grow to a large size; but in the garden of Mr. Hunnewell at Wellesley, Massachusetts, which I visited in May 1904, I noted that it had been almost killed to the snow line by the exceptionally severe winter of 1903–1904, though it had produced cones in the preceding year.^[36] (H.J.E.)

 

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1. Journ. Linn. Soc. (Bot.) xxvi. 556 (1902); Abies chinensis, Franchet, Journ. de Bot. 1899, p. 259.
2. Journ. Linn. Soc. (Bot.) loc. cit.; Abies yunnanensis, Franchet, loc. cit. p. 2583 and cf. also Masters, Journ. Linn. Soc. (Bot.) xxxvii. 421 (1906), who identifies the specimens from Szechuan with this species; but judging from Franchet's description, they are the other species.
3. Edin. New. Phil. Jour. 289 (1855) and Proc. Hort. Soc. ii. 202 (1863).
4. Gard. Chron. xvii. 145 (1882).
5. The distinctions relied on by Murray in the cones are trifling; and in the Kew Herbarium there are wild specimens showing these differences, but all belonging to the form with blue entire leaves. I have not seen cones belonging to the other form.
6. Survey E. Part Washington Forest Reserve, p. 336 (19th Ann. Report of the Survey, Part v, 1899).
7. Silva N. Amer. xii. 78, note 1.
8. The Rockies of Canada, 61–65 (1900).
9. The local name is Mount Tacoma, but in maps and writings it is usually called Mount Rainier.
10. An account of this forest, with two beautiful illustrations of "Patton's spruce," is given in Garden and Forest, x. I, figs. 1, 2 (1897).
11. Mountains of California, p. 20.
12. Mrs. Nicholl, who explored the Rocky Mountains in 1904 and 1905, tells me that it is a large tree at Glacier, on the Canadian Pacific Railway, and grows up to about 5000 feet.
13. Forest Conditions of Cascade Reserve, p. 25, Washington, 1903.
14. Twenty-first Annual Report of the U.S. Geological Survey, part v. Washington, 1900.
15. Forest Conditions in Cascade Reserve, U.S. Geological Survey, Washington, 1903.
16. "The Western Hemlock," U.S. Dept. Agric. Forestry Bulletin, No. 33 (1902).
17. Hunter, Woods of Perthshire, p. 359.
18. This tree was in 1868, 284 feet high by 2 feet 3 inches in girth at the base. In 1883 it measured 65 feet by 4 feet 11 inches at 3 feet from the ground (Gard. Chron. 1868, p. 657, and 1885, xxiii. 179). According to the owner, Colonel Sandbach, it was planted probably in 1856.
19. Gard. Chron. xxxvii. 130 (1905).
20. These are trees growing in peat soil at 635 feet altitude. 'Lhe seeds were sown in 1853, and in 1868 one tree was 29 feet by 1 ft. 11 in., and the other 26 feet by 2 feet at three feet from the ground (Gard. Chron. 1868, p. 518).
21. Allen, "Western Hemlock," 20, 21 (U.S. Forestry Bulletin, No. 33, 1902).
22. Forest Wealth of Canada, 82 (1904).
23. Sargent, Garden and Forest, x. 490 (1897).
24. A tree said to be the original one planted by him at Mill Hill still survives, but was, when I saw it in 1906, in poor condition, the soil being too dry for it.
25. Journ. R. Hort. Soc. xiv. 520, 544 (1892).
26. Prof. H.R. Procter of the Leather Industries Department of Leeds University, tells me that though the bark is still the principal tanning material of North America, it has been cut so recklessly that in many districts the supply is now insufficient, and is supplemented by extracts of other materials, especially that of Quebracho wood (Loxopterygium). In England its use was at one time considerable, but it is no longer a specially cheap material, and its colour has now to a large extent prevented its employment. The bark appears to contain from 8 to 12 per cent of a catechol tannin, yielding large quantities of insoluble "reds," and in this respect it is very inferior to the bark of the common spruce fr, which is largely employed in Austria, though it does not seem to be used in England.
27. Jour. de Bot, 1899, p. 258.
28. Flora von Central China, 217 (1901).
29. Himalayan Journals, i. 209, ii. 108, etc.
30. Encycl. Trees and Shrubs, 1036 (1842).
31. Note in Kew herbarium, and Nicholson in Woods and Forests, 1884, p. 243.
32. Gard. Chron, xxvi. 72 (1886).
33. Garden and Forest, x. 491 (1897).
34. In Industries of Japan, 236 (1889), Rein, who did not distinguish between the two species, probably speaking of Tsuga Sieboldii, says that the finest specimens seen by him were in the forests of Kin-shima-yama in Southern Kiu-siu, where it grows with Picea polita, and equals it in size, attaining 4 to 5 metres in girth. This goes to show that the tree enjoys a warm moist climate.
35. Silva North America, xii. 60.
36. Beissner states in Mitt. D. D. Ges. 1905, pp. 165, 167, that T. diversifolia is hardier than T. Sieboldii, but both of them grow well in East Friesland, and Mayr says that T. diversifolia is hardy at Munich.