N. ORD.-CONIFERZA. 165 
S. ORD.—CUPRESSINEA. 
GENUS.—THUJA,* TOURN. 
SEX, SYST.—_MONCECIA MONADELPHIA, 
TT 
AMERICAN ARBOR VITE. 
SYN.—THUJA OCCIDENTALIS, LINN.; CEDRUS LYCEA, GER. 
COM. NAMES.—AMERICAN ARBOR VIT4, WESTERN ARBOR VITA, TREE 
OF LIFE, WHITE CEDAR; HACKMATACK,{} THUJA; (FR.) THUIA 
DU CANADA; (GER.) LEBENSBAUM. 
A TINCTURE OF THE FRESH YOUNG TWIGS, LEAVES, AND BLOSSOMS OF THUJA 
OCCIDENTALIS, LINN. 
Description.—This spiry evergreen attains a height of from 20 to 50 feet, 
though generally not above 40, and a diameter of about 10 to 20 feet through 
the greatest breadth of foliage. Sprays or branchlets very flat, spreading, and 
ancipital. Leaves small, appressed, tightly imbricated in 4 rows, persistent. They 
are of two kinds on alternate or separated branchlets; one form is awl-shaped ; 
the other short, squamose, and obtuse ;* both forms have a small flattened dorsal 
gland, filled with a thin aromatic turpentine. /nxflorescence minute, terminal, ovoid 
aments; flowers moncecious on different branchlets; /evtle aments composed of 
a few imbricated scales. Fi/aments forming scale-like connectives, bearing 4 con- 
cave anther-cells. Cones nodding, ovoid before ripening, spreading or gaping 
when mature; sca/es blunt, arranged in three rows of two scales each, attached 
to the rhachis by their bases, the outer pair seedless; ~achzs composed of three 
nearly separate metamorphosed scales, each tipped with a rounded stigma-form 
body (Fig. 7). Seeds 6, double-winged, 2 in each of the second pair of scales, 
* Concerning the etymology of Thuja, Dr. Mayrhoffer says (Essay on Thuja occidentalis, Metca/f’s Provings, 
N. Y., 1853): “In the time of Francis I, king of France, this tree was imported into France from Canada. The first 
specimen was seen by Clusius in the royal garden of Fontainebleau, and a tolerably correct figure and description of it 
were furnished by him under the name of ardor vite. ( Caroli Clusii Rarior. Plantar. Histor., 1601.) The Greek name 
Séa, also Séeva or Sta, from Stew, suffre, to fumigate, points to a resinous tree, and is first seen in Theophrastus Lesbius, a 
disciple of Aristotle. In his work, ‘ rept ¢urwy icropta;,’ he describes a tree resembling the cypress, and called Séov (dévépov) 
or Sa (idea, species). Roman authors Latinized the word $va, changing it to Thya, Thuya, Thuia, Thuja, as Sé;, gen. 
Séeos, was changed to ¢hus, gen. thuris, and the word xvrapiwoos, to cupressus. The native region of the Thuja of Theo- 
phrastus, according to his account, is the territory of Cyrene, in Africa, and especially the region in which the temple of 
Jupiter Ammon was situated; whereas our Thuja is a native of North America.”’ It would seem by this that the Thuja 
of Theophrastus is 7huja articulata, Vahl., a native of Barbary. 
+ The true white cedar is Cupressus thyoides, Linn. 
t The hackmatack is Larix Americana, Michx. 
