96 WOODY PLANTS OF MASSACHUSETTS. 



SECTION SECOND. 

 THE CYPRESS TRIBE. 



The plants which belong to this section have not their fruit 

 in a true cone, but in a globular or irregular head, consisting 

 of a small number of scales, sometimes united into a sort of 

 berry. The section includes the Arbor Vitae, the Juniper, the 

 Red and the White Cedar, the Cypress, and the exotic genus 

 Callitris. Most of the section are natives of warmer climates. 

 Those which belong to New England are evergreen, but scarcely 

 resinous. They may be propagated by layers or cuttings, but 

 more readily by seeds, which generally lie in the ground a year. 

 The young plants are to be treated like the pines. 



I. 5. Arbor Vitje. Cedar. Thuya. L. 



The name of this genus is derived from a Greek word (duw) sig- 

 nifying to sacrifice, it having been used, from the agreeable odor 

 of the wood, in sacrificial offerings. The thuyas are narrow, 

 pyramidal, evergreen trees or shrubs of Asia, Africa, and North 

 America. The cones are ovoid, of a few scales, of which the 

 two exterior are shortened and boat-shaped. 



Sp. 1. The American Arbor Vitje. Thuya occidentalls. L. 



Figured by Michaux ; Sylva, III, Plate 156. 



The tree, flower and fruit, by Loudon ; Arboretum, VIII, Plate 302. 



This is a rare inhabitant of Massachusetts. In favorable 

 situations, it is sometimes, according to Michaux, a tree of 

 forty or fifty feet in height, with a trunk ten feet in circumfer- 

 ence. But usually it is not more than ten or fifteen inches in 

 diameter at five feet from the ground. The trunk is rarely 

 straight, and is often swollen in large ridges above the principal 

 roots. " The bark is slightly furrowed, smooth to the touch, 

 and very white when the tree stands exposed. The wood is 

 reddish, somewhat odorous, very light, soft, and fine-grained. 

 In the northern part of the United States and in Canada, it 

 holds the first place for durability. From the shape of the 



