i6 



HARDWOOD RECORD 



AMERICAN FOREST TREES. 



White Cedar. 

 Chamaecyparis sphaeroklea — Spach. 

 Clutmaecypuris thyoides — Britt. 



The white eedar frequents cold swamps 

 often inundated during several months of 

 the year, its range of growth commencing 

 with southern Maine on the north and ex- 

 tending southward along the coast to north- 

 ern Florida; westward to the Pearl Ki%-er 

 valley in Mississippi; it is comparatively 

 rare east of Boston and west of 

 Mobile Bay. 



The botanical term applied to 

 this species — thyoides — is from two 

 Greek words, meaning "resem- 

 blance ' ' and ' ' arbor vitae, ' ' to 

 which the tree is sometimes 

 likened. It is called white cedar 

 in Massachusetts, Ehode Island, 

 New York, New Jersey, Pennsyl- 

 vania, Delaware, North Carolina, 

 South Carolina, Florida, Alabama 

 and Mississippi; in Delaware it 

 is known as swamp cedar and 

 post cedar, while in Alabama, 

 North Carolina and Virginia it is 

 popularly called juniper. 



The leaves of white cedar are 

 closely appressed or spreading at 

 the apex; on the back they are 

 glandular or punctate; in color 

 dull greenish-blue, becoming brown 

 during the winter in northern 

 climes; they die down during the 

 second season, and are afterward 

 persistent for many years. While 

 the leaves of this tree resemble 

 those of arbor vitae, their gen- 

 eral effect is more brownish, the 

 latter being much greener, and 

 the leaf spray is less broad and 

 flat than that of arbor vitae, as 

 well as less heavy and coarse. 



The staminate flowers are com- 

 posed of five or six pairs of 

 stamens, which are dark brown 

 below the middle and nearly black 

 toward the apex; they are very 

 abundant. TTie pistillate flowers 

 are subglobose, and have ovate 

 spreading light-colored scales and 

 black ovules; they are greenish 

 and much fewer in number than 

 the staminate flowers. The tree 

 blooms in April. 



The fruit is a tiny, woody, 

 spherical cone, often not more 

 than a quarter of an inch in 

 diameter ; its few scales open at a 

 wide angle with the axis of the cone. The 

 fruit grows sessile on a short, leafy branch, 

 and is light green, covered with a glaucous 

 bloom when matured, then becoming bluish- 

 purple and exceedingly glaucous, eventually 

 turning dai'k brown. One or two seeds grow 

 under each fertile scale of the cone, about 

 an eighth of an inch in length, and winged. 



The wood of white eedar is soft, light, 



FIFTT-FOUKTH PAPEB. 



weak, brittle, close-grained, and slightly 

 fragrant. It is very durable in contact with 

 the soil, and is easily worked. The heart- 

 wood is a pinkish or darker brown ; the sap- 

 wood thin and much lighter colored; the 

 annual layers are very distinct. The wood 

 of white cedar is used in boat and canoe 

 building, for shingles, fencing, cooperage, 

 woodenware and railroad ties; it is also f re- 



in open fan-shaped sprays; their reddish, thin 

 bark separates into small feathery scales. 

 White cedar is an important ornamental 

 evergreen tree, and is cultivated widely; 

 however, it will not grow far from coast land. 

 The illustration accompanying this article 

 was made in one of the clumps of jvmiper, 

 popularly known as ' ' greens ' ' in the North 

 Carolina timber holdings of the John L. 

 Eoper Lumber Company of Nor- 

 folk, Va. This company is the 

 J largest holder in the world of this 



•\ valuable stumpage. 



V Tlie swamp water in which 



juniper grows is locally regarded 

 as very healthful, and many bar- 

 rels of it are shipped to outlying 

 sections, where it is drunk for its 

 alleged medicinal qualities. 



TY 



riCAL FOREST GUOWTH WHITE CED.\R, NORTH 

 CAROLINA. 



quently employed for interior trim in dwell- 

 ings. The weight of a cubic foot of sea- 

 soned wood is about twenty-three pounds. 



The wliite cedar grows from seventy to 

 eighty feet high, with a tall trunk usually 

 about two to three feet in diameter. Its 

 slender, horizontal branches form a narrow, 

 spire-like head and give it a generally grace- 

 ful appearance, with its branchlets disposed 



Varieties of Cedar. 



The original true cedar, the 

 species to which the name properly 

 belongs, is the eedar of Lebanon, 

 which seems to have been im- 

 ported into England more than 

 two hundred and fifty years ago. 

 Its introduction into that country 

 has been attributed to John Eve- 

 lyn, from the fact that he wrote 

 of raising it ' ' from the seeds and 

 berries. ' ' Tiiis very fact, how- 

 ever, would tend to show that such 

 an idea is erroneous, and that the 

 growth was doubtless one of the 

 junipers, and not the true Leb- 

 anon wood. The many foreign 

 "cedars" include the Cape, the 

 Japan, and Queensland, and nu- 

 merous varieties of cypress and 

 juniper. 



England still contains many fine 

 specimens of this famous tree, one 

 of which is in the garden of the 

 old palace at Enfield. It was 

 planted at the time of tlie Great 

 Plague, in 1665, and measures 

 eighteen feet in girth. The most 

 noted cedars were the four planted 

 in 1683, in the famous physic-gar- 

 den at Chelsea, belonging to the 

 Society of Apothecaries. They 

 were eventually cut or broken 

 down, the last disappearing in 

 1904. The society had a beautiful 

 chair made from one of the large 

 branches. The wood of Lebanon 

 cedar is wonderful in its time-re- 

 sisting qualities. Egyptian boats made of it, 

 which were recently found buried near the 

 banks of the Nile and which, according to 

 excellent authorities, must be between four 

 and five thousand years old, were in a good 

 state of preservation. The desert sand had 

 covered them completely, which of course 

 served as a protection to them and consider- 

 ably prolonged tiieir existence. 



