by Nathaniel Lord Britton & Addison Brown

“ A slender tree, usually small, but sometimes attaining a height of 110° and a trunk diameter of 3°, the old bark dark colored, flaky, the branches spreading or drooping, the twigs glaucous. Leaves in 2's, dark green, rather stout and stiff, 11⁄2'-21⁄2' long, with 2 fibro-vascular bundles; young sheaths rarely more than 21⁄2" long; cones commonly few, lateral, recurved when young, spreading when old, oblong-conic, 11⁄2'-21⁄2' long, their scales somewhat thickened at the apex, the low transverse ridge with a short more or less recurved prickle. ”

“ Staminate aments axillary, short or subglobose; anthers 2-celled, the sacs transversely dehiscent, the connective slightly produced beyond them; pollen-grains simple. Ovule-bearing aments terminal, the scales about as long as the bracts, each bearing 2 reflexed ovules on its base. Cones small, ovoid or oblong, pendulous, their scales scarcely woody, obtuse, persistent. Seeds somewhat winged. [Name Japanese.]
About 7 species; the following in North America, 2 in northwestern North America, 3 or 4 Asiatic. Type species: Tsuga Sieboldi Carr. ”

“ Evergreen trees with two kinds of leaves, the primary ones linear or scale-like, deciduous, the secondary ones forming the ordinary foliage, narrowly linear, arising from the axils of the former in fascicles of 2-5 (rarely solitary in some western species) , subtended by the bud-scales, some of which are united to form a sheath. Staminate aments borne at the bases of shoots of the season, the clusters of stamens spirally arranged, each in the axil of a minute scale; filaments very short; anthers 2-celled, the sacs longitudinally dehiscent. ”