50 Forest Trees and Shrubs of Meriden, Conn, 



9. CUPRESSUS THYOIDES. (Linn.) 

 White Cedar. 



This valuable tree is restricted to swamps, and grows from forty 

 to eighty feet in height, and stem from two to three feet in diam- 

 eter. The wood is reddish, light, soft, fine-grained, and very dur- 

 able. There is probably no other wood that will yield so much 

 valuable timber to the acre. It is largely used in boat-building, 

 for woodenware, cooperage, shingles, interior finish, telegraph and 

 fence posts, etc. 



10. JUNIPERUS VIRGINIANA. (Linn.) 



Red Cedar. Savin. 



Shrubby, or a small tree, growing from twenty to fifty feet high. 

 The heart-wood of reddish color, light, soft, not strong, brittle, 

 very close and straight-grained, compact, easily worked, and very 

 durable. Largely used for interior finish, cabinet making, posts, 

 sills, and almost exclusively, for lead pencils. A decoction of the 

 leaves is occasionly used as a substitute for savin cerata, and an 

 infusion of the berries as a diuretic. Specific gravity, 0.4926; 

 ash, 0.13. 



IL JUNIPERUS COMMUNIS. '(Linn.) 



Juniper. 



A low, straggling shrub or small tree, seldom more than ten or 

 twelve feet high, although the most common in Meriden is the 

 prostrate form. There is an immense number of varieties of this 

 species in cultivation. The oil extracted from the berries is used 

 as a diuretic. 



Section IIL THE YEWS. 



12. TAXUS CANADENSIS. (Gray.) 



American Yew. Ground Hemlock. 



A prostrate evergreen shrub, the stem trailing on the ground, or 

 just beneath the surface, to a distance of six or eight feet, some- 

 times from two to four feet high. The older botanists considered 

 this a distinct species from the English Yew (Zl baccatd), but Dr. 

 Grey and others considered it only a well defined variety. 



