106 WOODY PLANTS OF MASSACHUSETTS. 



which measured rive feet three inches in circumference at two 

 feet from the ground, and four feet three inches at five feet. 

 The trunk is much bent, and all the branches violently twisted 

 landward by the northeast wind, which pours in upon it from 

 between two hills. The smooth bark is nearly covered with 

 parmelias and other lichens. 



Another, near the same place, lies prostrate on the rock from 

 beneath which it springs. It has a circumference of five feet 

 three inches as near the root as it can be measured, and six feet 

 eight inches at the largest part free of branches. These, nu- 

 merous, crowded and matted, bend down like a pent-house, 

 over the side of the rock. Others are seen on the same road, 

 as if crouching behind walls ; rising higher and higher as they 

 recede from the walls, and forming protected, sunny spots for 

 sheep to lie in. 



An old tree of red cedar on J. Davis's land in Roxbury, nearly 

 opposite the summer residence of E. Francis, Esq., is one foot 

 four inches in diameter at four feet from the ground. 



This tree, of which there are many varieties, is found, in 

 America, from the Saskatchawan, in Canada, in latitude 54°, 

 as far as Georgia, Florida, Louisiana, the Bermudas and Bar- 

 badoes Islands, around the Gulf of Mexico beyond St. Bar- 

 nard's Bay, and through the Western States to the Rocky 

 Mountains. It abounds in Europe and northern Asia, as far 

 as the Crimea and the Oural, having thus a geographical range 

 equal, perhaps superior, to any other tree known. 



On the branches of the red cedar are often found excrescences, 

 which, when fresh, are of a tough, fleshy consistency, enclosed 

 in a reddish brown bark. On drying, they become of a woody 

 texture. On the last day of June, a mild, rainy day, these were 

 found, every where, enveloped by an orange-colored substance 

 in threads an inch or more long, and one or two lines thick, 

 gelatinous, of little consistency, and full of cells, each thread 

 issuing from a circular or polygonal depression. On the fol- 

 lowing day, they were all beginning to dry up, and in a few 

 days, scarcely a trace of the gelatinous substance remained. 



These cedar apples, as they are called, are commonly sup- 

 posed to be produced by the action of some insect. They are, 



