302 



SYLVA AMERICANA. 



THUJA. 



Monoecia Monadelphia. Linn. Coniferae, Juss. Expectorant, secernant, 



stimulant. 



American Arbor Vitje. Thuja occidentalism 



This species of Thuja, 

 the only one that has been 

 discovered in America, is 

 the most interesting of the 

 genus for the properties of 

 its wood. The shores of 

 Lake St. John in Canada 

 may be considered as its 

 northern limit. It abounds 

 in favorable situations be- 

 tween the parallels of 48 

 50' and 45 ; farther south 

 it becomes rare, and solitary 

 stocks are seen only on the 

 sides of torrents and on the 

 banks of certain rivers, as 

 on the Hudson amidst the 

 highlands, along the Erie canal from Rome to Montezuma, and 

 near the rapids of the Potomac in Virginia. Goat's Island, 

 round which the Niagara divides itself to form the stupendous 

 cataract which is one of the most wonderful spectacles of nature, 

 is seen from the banks of the river to be bordered with the arbor 

 vitae. In Canada and the northern parts of the United States 

 this tree is called White Cedar, but in the state of Maine it is 

 frequently designated by the name of Arbor T^itce, which we 

 have preferred, though less commonj because the other is 

 appropriated to the Cupressus thyoides. In Lower Canada, 

 New Brunswick, Vermont and the state of Maine, the arbor 

 vitae is the most multiplied of the resinous trees, after the black 

 and hemlock spruces. A cool soil seems to be indispensable to 



PLATE XCV. 

 Fig. 1. A leaf with cones. 



