54 ~- Rhodora [Marcu 
THUJA OCCIDENTALIS. 
Hutchinson says that, “The ‘anomalous’ distribution of Thuja ocet- 
dentalis defies explanation by regarding temperature, water or soil as 
the limiting factors: . . . ‘It is absent in Newfoundland, Cape Breton, 
Nova Scotia, and the east half of Prince Edward Island, but unusually 
large and fine in New Brunswick and the Gaspé peninsula, in which 
the climate, soil, etc., are the same as in the adjacent regions, where no 
trace of the species is to be found." It is certainly startling to read 
that the climate and soil of Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, New Bruns- 
wick, Prince Edward Island, and Gaspé are so uniform, for in sections 
of western Nova Scotia peaches are raised with great success, but he 
would: be a foolish man indeed who would think of planting a peach 
orchard in Newfoundland or in Gaspé county; and in view of the 
remarkably spotted and pied colorings of a geological map of this 
region it is further obvious that the generalization quoted above is 
wholly inaccurate. 
Bell and following him Hutchinson are correct, however, in stating 
that in the Gaspé Peninsula and at least in northwestern New Bruns- 
wick Thuja occidentalis attains an unusual development, and had they 
been familiar with the region they would have extended the limits of 
this area of " unusually large and fine" trees into northeastern Maine. 
Chalmers's statement that in this Silurian limestone region the trunks 
of Thuja range from 1-3 feet in diameter has already been noted. 
These figures are, however, by no means the maximum, for at many 
points in northern Maine the writer has measured Cedars with trunks 
4-6 feet in diameter. In southeastern New Brunswick Thuja occi- 
dentalis is localized and there chiefly a swamp shrub or dwarfed tree, 
obviously not in a wholly satisfactory environment. This region, 
the Eastern Plain of Ganong} is the extensive area of Carboniferous 
sandstones, already referred to under Pinus Banksiana. To the 
southeast of the Carboniferous plain lie the Southeastern Highlands, 
in the east chiefly of granites and felsites, and at the extreme south- 
east lies the extensive Permian sandstone region which continues for 
100 miles along the northern side of Nova Scotia. Chalmers describes 
this region as having some excellent farms along the coast and in the 
1 Ganong, Bull. Nat. Hist. Soc. N. B. iv. 236 (1899). 
