The Hemlock is confessedly one of the most beautiful of the coniferous
evergreens, though rather narrow in its dimensions. The principal
branches are small and short with very slender terminations, in which it
differs from all the other spruces. The multitude of these slender
sprays, and their rows of soft delicate leaves, cause those beautiful
undulations that characterize the foliage of this tree when moved by the
wind. The leaves, of a light green on their upper surface and of a
silvery whiteness beneath, are arranged in a row on each side of the
branchlets. But while those of the other spruces are sessile, those of
the Hemlock have slender footstalks, yielding them a slight mobility.
The spangled glitter of the foliage is caused by a slightly tremulous
motion of the terminal sprays.
In a deep wood the Hemlock shows some very important defects. There it
forms a shaft from fifty to eighty feet in height without any diminution
of its size, until near the summit, where it tapers suddenly, forming a
head of foliage that projects considerably above the general level of
the forest. The trunk is covered with dead branches projecting from it
on all sides, causing it to wear a very unsightly appearance; and when
the tree is sawed into boards, they are found to extend directly through
the sapwood of the tree, making a hole in it as round as if it were
bored with an auger. This is caused by the continued growth of the trunk
of the tree after the decay of its branches, every year forming a new
circle round the branch, but not inosculating with it, as in other
trees.
The full beauty of the Hemlock is displayed on the edge of a wood, or on
a plain where it has grown without impediment, feathering down to the
ground. Here we observe how much less formal it is in shape than other
conifers. When there are no gaps in its ramification, the numerous
branches are mostly in close contact at their extremities, so that, when
viewed from the outside of the wood, it seems nearly one uninterrupted
mass of foliage, hiding the interior of the tree almost entirely from
sight. In its perfection, when it has enjoyed an isolated growth,
without any mechanical accident to mar its symmetry, it presents a fine
tapering form without stiffness, and a mass of glittering foliage with
which that of but few other trees is comparable.
The branches of the Hemlock are very numerous, perfectly horizontal, and
remarkable for the absence of those regular whorls that distinguish
other trees of this genus. They are put forth irregularly from all parts
of the trunk, turning from their horizontal position gracefully upward,
drooping a little at their termination, and endowed with great
flexibility. The branches are minutely subdivided, forming with their
leaves a flat surface, somewhat like the compound pinnate leaves of the
cicuta, or poison hemlock. From this resemblance it undoubtedly obtained
its name. These branches lie one above another, each bending over at its
extremities upon the surface of those below, like the feathers upon the
wings of a bird.
The bark of the Hemlock is of a reddish brown, divided by furrows that
separate it into scales. The young trees have a smooth bark, like that
of the balsam fir. The cones are very small, numerous, and pendent, of a
fine crimson color when they first appear, attached to the ends of the
branches, and arriving at maturity in the autumn. The Hemlock occupies
all kinds of soil, though trees of a large size are found only where it
is deep and fertile. It is fond of moisture, often extending its
graceful boughs from the summits of granitic rocks and declivities wet
with perpetual springs. “The Hemlock is natural to the coldest regions
of America, and begins to appear about Hudson’s Bay, near Lake St. John;
in the neighborhood of Quebec it fills the forests, and in Nova Scotia,
New Brunswick, the States of Maine and Vermont, and a considerable part
of New Hampshire, it constitutes three fourths of the evergreen woods.
Further south it is less common, and in the Middle and Southern States
it is seldom seen, except on the Alleghanies.”