I70 FOREST TREES. 



On dry soil the ^Vhite Cedar forms pyramidal groups growing close 

 •and compact from the ground upwards, the horizontal branches being 

 so closely interwoven as to appear like one dense bush, and presenting 

 a fine mass of rich evergreen foliage during the greater part of the year, 

 though the severe frosts of Winter change the bright verdant hue to a 

 sickly yellowish tint ; but, like the Pines, the rising of the sap early in 

 April renews all its bright colour and reclothes it with fresh beauty. 

 The fall of the old leaves takes place in the latter end of summer, soon 

 after the new shoots and fruit have been perfected. 



Pursh, our oldest Canadian botanist, writing of the American White 

 ■Cedar (or Arbor vitce), says : " Its geographical range is from the 

 northern parts of Canada to the mountains of Virginia and Carolina ; " 

 but adds, that " in the Southern States it is becoming rare, and is now 

 only found native on the steep rocky banks of mountain torrents." 



The White Cedar takes a more northerly range than the Cypress 

 ■{Cupressus thyoides), also called White Cedar. This latter species 

 prefers a warmer climate, extending southward, whilst our native Cedar 

 is seldom found south of the Alleghanies. Thus each species maintains 

 its ovvn special boundary, retreating by almost imperceptible degrees, 

 and giving place to its advancing rival. 



It is not often that the Cedar is found growing promiscuously in the 

 forest among hardwood trees, and rarely, if there, does it attain to any 

 considerable size. When a group of these trees is so found, they indi- 

 ■cate the presence of springs ; often the head waters or sources of forest 

 streams are thus made known to the exploring woodsman and hunter. 

 The Pagan worshippers of ancient times would have deified the moisture- 

 loving Cedars, making them the sylvan home of Naiads who had their 

 haunts by cool stream and shady grot, or by the rushy margin of lonely 

 springs and bubbling founts. 



But though the Cedar is mostly found growing on the low-lying 

 margins of lakes and rivers, yet it is a singular fact that it is frequently 

 found forming dense masses, in detached groups, on high, dry, gravelly 

 giound, and grassy wastes that have long lain unoccu])ied save by weeds 

 and poverty-grass. In such unlikely spots these Cedar bushes take root, 

 never growing up into tall trees as in the moister lands, yet spreading 

 •continually till they effectually cover the ground, and, by excluding the 

 sun and wind, convert, in process of time, the soil into a damp one, no 

 •evaporation taking place from the surface through the dense mass of 

 branches that cover the earth even to the very roots of the bushes. I'he 

 snow that falls in Winter, and the rain in Autumn and Spring, saturate 

 the ground with a superabundance of moisture, which ascends not again 



