DWARF CYPRESS (_Cupressus pygmæa_) was formerly supposed to be a stunted form of Gowen cypress. The ranges of both lie in the same region, on the coast of California in Mendocino county. The average height of dwarf cypress is from ten to twenty feet, with trunk diameter from six to twelve inches; but in peat swamps and on sterile sands it may not exceed three or four feet in height. It bears abundant cones at that size, and sometimes a tree no more than a foot high has mature cones. They ripen the second year, but remain a long time on the branches. The trees thrive in the most forbidding places, and are sometimes the only occupants of bogs or sand dunes. The wood is necessarily of little value, because of the small size of trees. There seems to be no record of a dwarf cypress over sixty years of age; but it is believed that much older trees have fallen victims to fire. [Illustration] HEMLOCK [Illustration: HEMLOCK] HEMLOCK (_Tsuga Canadensis_) Seven hemlocks are known in the world, four of them in America. Two of these are in the East, two in the West. The eastern species are the Canadian and Carolinian. The former is _Tsuga canadensis_, the latter _Tsuga caroliniana_. The western species are, mountain hemlock (_Tsuga mertensiana_), and western hemlock (_Tsuga heterophylla_). The word _tsuga_ is Japanese and means hemlock. The hemlock lumber in eastern markets is practically all from one species, which is known as hemlock in Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Kentucky, Wisconsin, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio, Ontario. In Vermont, Rhode Island, New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, West Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina; in England it is called hemlock spruce; spruce tree in Pennsylvania and West Virginia; spruce pine in Pennsylvania, Delaware, Virginia, North Carolina, Georgia; to the New York Indians it was known as oh-neh-tah, which being interpreted means “greens on the stick.” The range of hemlock extends east and west more than fifteen hundred miles, from Nova Scotia to western Wisconsin; south to Delaware and southern Michigan, and along the Appalachian mountains to northern Alabama and Georgia. The original quantity of timber was enormous, for large areas were covered with dense stands. The largest trees are found near the southern part of its range, among the mountains of Tennessee and North Carolina; but the bulk of the timber has always been in the North. It thrives best in well drained soil, but it likes cool situations and often develops dense forests on northern slopes or in deep ravines; but it maintains a foothold on ridges, on the banks of streams, and around the borders of swamps.