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A smaller tree than Siebold's hemlock, which it resembles in habit.

Young shoots pubescent, the pubescence occurring on both the leaf-bases and the intervening furrows. Leaves arranged as in Tsuga Sieboldii, but considerably shorter, scarcely exceeding ½ inch in length, oblong, uniform in breadth, shining and dark green above with a median furrow continued to the rounded and emarginate apex; lower surface with green midrib and two narrow well-defined white bands of stomata; margin entire. Buds red, pyriform, flattened above; scales rounded at the apex, minutely pubescent and ciliate.

Cones subsessile, pendent or deflected, ovoid; scales shining, orbicular-oblong, truncate at the base, with edge slightly bevelled and thickened. Bract minute, concealed, rhomboid. Seed with a short terminal wing, which is not decurrent along its side.

In Japan I saw both species in their native forests; but so far as I could learn they are not distinguished by the foresters and are both called Tsuga (pronounced tsunga). By the Japanese botanists Tsuga Sieboldii is termed Tsuga, the other species being named Kuro-tsuga or Kome-tsuga. Of the two, the latter apparently has a more northern range than Tsuga Sieboldii. I saw it in the forest round Lake Yumoto at 4000 to 5000 feet elevation, where it is a picturesque and graceful tree of no great size. Both species, however, according to Shirasawa, are found in this district. Tsuga diversifolia also occurred high up in the Atera valley. Further south in the Kisogawa valley and at Koyasan I saw Tsuga Sieboldii, which at 2000 to 3000 feet attains a large size, growing scattered in mixed forests and not gregariously, like the other species at Lake Yumoto. I measured a tree at Koyasan, which had been felled; it was over 100 feet in height, of which half was free from branches, the butt being about 3 feet in diameter. I estimated it as 250 to 300 years old, though the growth had been so slow that I could not count the rings beyond 150. The wood of this tree, as I was told by the chief priest of the Gemyo-in temple, who was my host at Koyasan, is even better than that of Hinoki (Cupressus obtusa); and much of the wood used in building the temple had been Tsuga. Old trees, however, are now so scarce that the timber cannot be obtained in quantity. I bought some beautiful boards cut from it at Osaka, which have a pale yellow colour and very fine wavy figure. The wood is also made into shingles, which are said to last about forty years, and it has lately been used for paper-making. The bark is used for tanning fishing-nets, and the timber sells in Tokyo at thirty-five to forty yen