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.
TSUGA CANADENSIS (Linnæus) Carrière. Hemlock. (×1/2.)