=Form=.—Height 60-100 feet, diameter 2-4 feet; trunk with limbs nearly to the ground when in the open but free from them to a considerable height when in dense stands; slender horizontal branches form a pyramidal crown which is often irregular.
=Leaves=.—Arranged on all sides of the branch, but appearing as if in two ranks, flat, thin, rounded or slightly notched at the tip, about ½ inch long, dark green above, pale beneath.
=Flowers=.—April-May; monoecious; staminate in the axils, globose, yellow; pistillate terminal, pale green, oblong, with broad bracts and short pinkish scales.
=Fruit=.—Cones mature each autumn; borne on slender stalks; ovate, about ¾ of an inch long; scales rounded, about as broad as long; seeds about ⅛ inch long, half as long as their wings.
=Bark=.—With deep fissures on old trunks and prominent rounded ridges; inner bark cinnamon-red.
=Wood=.—Light, medium hard, brittle, coarse-grained, not easily worked, not durable when exposed to the weather; red-brown with lighter sapwood.
=Range=.—Nova Scotia, south to Alabama and west to Minnesota.
=Distribution in West Virginia=.—Common in nearly all parts of the State, reaching high elevations in the mountain counties, and confined to ravines and rough stony ground in most of the hilly sections.
=Habitat=.—Prefers damp stony northern exposures, deep stream gorges, river banks, and swamp borders.
=Notes=.—The hemlock ranks as one of the most useful trees. The wood is used for construction, paper pulp, and lath; the bark is used in tanning; and the trees are often planted on lawns and in hedges.
=Form=.—Height 30-70 feet, diameter 1-2½ feet; trunk continuous, tapering; crown pyramidal; rigid horizontal or ascending branches.
=Leaves=.—Linear, arranged around the stem, ½-¾ of an inch long, dark silvery green.
=Flowers=.—Monoecious; staminate yellow with red tinge; pistillate with rounded scales and pale yellow-green bracts.
=Fruit=.—Cones oblong-ovate, about 2½ inches long; width of scales twice their length, dark purple; bracts reflexed covering at maturity about half the scale.
=Bark=.—Roughened by cinnamon or gray scales.
=Wood=.—Light, soft, not strong, coarse-grained, pale brown with whitish sapwood.
=Range=.—From Virginia and West Virginia south to North Carolina and Tennessee.