RED CEDAR. 54 
from the ground, giving off many horizontal 
branches. Its surface is generally unequal, and 
disfigured by knots, and the crevices and protu- 
berances they occasion. The small twigs are cov 
_ ered with minute, densely imbricated leaves, which 
continue to increase in size as the branch grows, 
till they are broken up and confounded with the 
rough bark. These leaves are fleshy, ovate, con- 
cave, rigidly acute, marked with a small depressed 
gland on the middle of their outer side, growing 
in pairs, which are united at base to each other, 
and to the pairs above and below them. They do 
not alter their situation, but continue opposite till 
they are obliterated by age. A singular variety 
sometimes appears in the young shoots, especially 
those which issue from the base of the trees. This 
consists in an elongation of the leaves to five or 
six times their usual length, while they become 
spreading, acerose, considerably remote from each 
other, and irregular in their insertion, being 
either opposite or ternate. These shoots are so 
dissimilar to the parent tree that they have 
repeatedly been mistaken for individuals of a 
different species.—The barren flowers grow in 
small oblong aments, formed by peltate scales 
with the anthers concealed within them. The 
fertile flowers have a proper perianth, which 
