m and making them
more feathery than ever."

"So they are like feathers?" said Malcolm, to whom this was a new idea,
"I'll look for 'em the next time it snows; yet--" He was going to add
that he wished it would snow to-morrow; but remembering that it was only
the beginning of June, and that Miss Harson had shown them how each
season has its pleasures, he stopped just in time.

"The pretty little cones of the hemlock, which grow very thickly on the
tree, have a crimson tinge at first, and turn to a light brown. They are
found hanging on the ends of the small branches, and they fall during
the autumn and winter. This tree is a native of the coldest parts of
North America, where it is found in whole forests, and it flourishes on
granite rocks on the sides of hills exposed to the most violent storms.
The wood is firm and contains very little resin; it is much used for
building-purposes. A great quantity of tannin is obtained from the
bark; and when mixed with that of the oak, it is valuable for
preparing leather.

"We have taken the prettiest of the spruces first," continued Miss
Harson, "and now we must see what are the differences between them. 'The
two species of American spruce, the black and the white--or, as they are
more commonly called, the double and the single--are distinguished from
the fir and the hemlock in every stage of growth by the roughness of the
bark on their branches, produced by little ridges running down from the
base of each leaf, and by the disposition of the leaves, which are
arranged in spirals equally on every side of the young shoots. The
double is distinguished from the single spruce by the darker color of
the foliage--whence its name of black spruce--by the greater thickness,
in proportion to the length, of the cones, and by the looseness of its
scales, which are jagged, or toothed, on the edge.' It is a
well-proportioned tree, but stiff-looking, and the dark foliage, which
never seems to change, gives it a gloomy aspect. The leaves are closely
arranged in spiral lines. The black spruce is never a very large tree,
but the wood is light, elastic and durable, and is valuable in
shipbuilding, for making ladders and for shingles. The young shoots are
much in demand for making spruce-beer. The white spruce is more slender
and tapering, and the bark and leaves are lighter. The root is very
tough, and the Canadian Indians make threads from the fibres, with which
they sew together the birch-bark fo