CAROLINA HEMLOCK (Tsuga Carolinian, Engehn). 4l to 70 feet. Compact, pyramidal tree, with pendulous, grace ful branches. Bark red-brown, thick, checked into irregu lar plates by deep clefts; branches brown; twigs orange, pubes cent. Wood pale brown, brittle, coarse-grained, weak; used locally for fuel; planted as a park tree. Leaves dark green, lustrous above, whitish beneath, grooved, curved, to I inch long, blunt or notched at tip, twisted to appear ,-,ranked on twigs. Flowers solitary, purplish, in early spring; staminate globular, minute; pistillate oblong, with broad scales and bracts. Fruit pendent, brown, thin-scaled cones, I to lZ inches long, stalked, scales spreading widely to discharge the winged seeds in winter. Dist.: Rocky banks of streams in mountain districts from Virginia to Georgia, forming groves Excellent ornamental tree, hardy in New England.
BALaArn Fm (Abies baisamea, Mill.). 50 to 60 feet.
Broadly pyramidal tree, with stiff limbs and slender, pubes :tent twigs. Bark thin, brown, broken into shiny plates, with blisters of white, dried, or sticky balsam. Clear drops of balsam from ruptured pockets in the bark occur on branches. The "Canada balsam" of the useful arts. Wood soft, weak, coarse, brownish, not durable, used for packing cases. Leaves dark green, lustrous above, white linings, stiff, blunt, 2-ranked, to 11 inches long, aromatic, cut for pillows. Flowers lat eral, purplish; staminate tinged yellow by the anthers, minute, button-like; pistillate with round scales and toothed bracts. Fruit erect cones, purple, 2 to 4 inches long, blunt, with broad, plain scales, that fall away from the axis, revealing the short bracts, and liberating the winged seeds. Dist.: Labrador through Canada to Minnesota; New England and along high lands to southwestern Virginia.