=3. TSÙGA.= The Hemlocks.
=Tsuga canadénsis= (Linnæus) Carrière. Hemlock. Plate 6. Tall trees, 3-7
dm. in diameter, with reddish-brown or grayish bark, deeply furrowed;
shoots very slender and hairy, becoming smooth in a few years; leaves
apparently 2-ranked, persisting for about three years, linear, short
petioled, 6-13 mm. long, usually about 10 mm. long, usually flat, obtuse
or notched at apex, bright green and shiny above, bluish-white beneath;
staminate flowers appear early in the spring from buds in the axils of
the leaves of the previous season, the pistillate terminal, erect,
oblong; cones almost sessile and pendulous, borne on the end of last
year's branch, maturing the first season, ovoid, 1.5-2.5 cm. long; wood
light, soft, brittle, not durable, difficult to work, splintery but
holds a nail well.
=Distribution.=--Nova Scotia south to Delaware, west to Minnesota and
southeastward through Indiana and eastern Kentucky, thence southward on
the mountains to northern Alabama. In Indiana it is not found[4] north
of Brown County. It is found in limited numbers at the following places:
on a bluff of Bean Blossom Creek in Brown County; on a steep wooded
slope on the south side of a small creek about one and a half miles
north of Borden in Clark County, and also reported on the bank of Silver
Creek between Clark and Floyd Counties; a few trees on the top and sides
of the cliffs about one mile east of Taswell in Crawford County; a few
trees on the bluff of Guthrie Creek in Jackson County; a few trees along
the north fork of the Muscatatuck River between Vernon and North Vernon
in Jennings County; a few trees on the south bank of Back Creek near
Leesville in Lawrence County; frequent on the banks of Sugar Creek near
the "Shades" in Montgomery County; a few trees on the bank of Raccoon
Creek in the southern part of Owen County; frequent on the bank of Sugar
Creek in Turkey Run State Park in Parke County; a few trees on the banks
of Raccoon and Walnut Creeks in Putnam County. Also reported by
Beeler[5] as found on a bluff of White River in Morgan County.
In all of its stations it is found on sandstone bluffs on the south side
of streams, giving it a north or northwest exposure. In a few of the
stations there are no small trees, but in Montgomery County along Sugar
Creek it is reproducing well.
=Remarks.=--Hemlock is of no economic importance in Indiana. The bark is
much used in tanning. Hemlock is frequently used for a hedge plant, also
as a specimen tree in parks, etc.
[Illustration: Plate 6.