318 GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION OF PLANTS. 



to the coasts of Beering's Sea ; and a spruce which grows on the 

 banks of the Niatok or Buckland River is thought by Sir 

 William J. Hooker to be one of these Sitka species, and de- 

 cidedly different from A. alba, to which Mr. Seeman at first 

 referred it. 



Larix americana, American larch, tamarack or hackmatack, 

 L'epinette rouge of the voyagers, and the Waggina-gan or 

 " tree that bends " of the Crees, ranges northwards to the arctic 

 circle, and from Newfoundland and Labrador across the con- 

 tinent to the Pacific. It grows in the swamps of the Northern 

 States, and extends southwards to Virginia, where it is confined 

 to the mountains. In high latitudes this tree yields a very 

 heavy wood, so much twisted in the grain as not to be readily 

 worked, but it is tough and very durable. It is a tree of no 

 great importance, and is generally thinly scattered through the 

 forest, and if it is any where grouped in numbers it is on the 

 borders of swamps, where it never attains much height. 



Cupressus thyoides, white or sweet cedar, extends from North 

 Carolina to the south side of the Saskatchewan basin. Clumps 

 of it grow on the west side of Rainy Lake, and solitary trees 

 range northwards to the vicinity of Cumberland House in lati- 

 tude 54°, where a specimen was gathered by Mr. Drummond. 

 C. nutkatensis vel Thuja excelsa inhabits the Pacific coast 

 from Norfolk Sound down to Observatory Inlet and Van- 

 couver's Island. Thuja occidentalis, American arbor vita?, also 

 called white cedar, has its northern limit on the east side of the 

 Rocky Mountains at Lac Bourbon or Cedar Lake, a dilatation 

 of the Saskatchewan lying between the 53rd and 54th parallels. 

 Michaux mentions the mountains of Virginia as its southern 

 limit. It is a handsome ornament to the banks of Rainy River 

 and the River Winipeg, where it overhangs the water in a 

 picturesque manner ; but, as it commonly grows on the occa- 

 sionally inundated points of lakes and in swamps unmixed with 

 other trees, it has a sombre aspect; and its stems are generally 

 inclined, crooked, and even contracted. T. gigantea, the Wyeth 

 of the Wallamet Indians, grows in the valley of Oregon from 

 the Rocky Mountains to the sea, and northwards to Vancouver's 



