98 WOODY PLANTS OF MASSACHUSETTS. 



the sides or ends of the branches. They slightly resemble 

 transformed leaves, each holding in its bosom two bottle-like 

 ovaries. The cones are of a light brown color, three-eighths of 

 an inch long, consisting of from six to twelve loose, oblong, 

 rounded scales, protecting each two seeds, which are edged by 

 a narrow wing on each side. 



The arbor vitas is interesting from its association with the 

 grand and beautiful objects, near which it is commonly seen 

 growing wild ; such as Goat's Island at Niagara, and the steep 

 banks of West Canada Creek at Trenton Falls. It is found 

 only in cool and moist situations, but may be cultivated in any 

 ground not too dry. Its fantastic and singular shape recom- 

 mends it to be planted for the embellishment of water-falls, and 

 as a beautiful single tree. 



I. 6. Cedar or Cypress. Cupressus. Tourneforte. 



The cypresses, for to this genus our white cedar belongs, are 

 low, evergreen trees, natives of Europe, Asia, and North Amer- 

 ica, and remarkable for their spiry form, and the closeness of 

 grain, and the durability of their wood. They have a roundish 

 or polyedral cone, called a galbule, and small, imbricated, 

 scale-like, four-rowed leaves. By the ancients, the cypress was 

 considered an emblem of immortality ; with the moderns, it is 

 emblematical of sadness and mourning. 



Dark tree ! still sad, when others' grief is fled, 

 The only constant mourner of the dead. — Byron. 



The White Cedar. Cupressus Ihyoides. L. 

 Figured by Michaux ; Sylva, III, Plate 152. 



This is always a graceful and beautiful tree. Even when 

 growing in its native swamps, hemmed in on all sides, and 

 struggling for existence, the top and a branch or two near the 

 top, will be marked by a characteristic elegance of shape which 

 no other tree of the family possesses. It is entirely free from 

 the stiffness of the pines, and to the spiry top of the poplar, and 

 the grace of the cypress, it unites the airy lightness of the 

 hemlock. 



