344 TRANSACTIONS OF ROYAL SCOTTISH ARBORICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



than in light dry loam or gravel. Even when young in the 

 nursery, we have noticed the preference of this tree for a cool 

 moist soil, seedlings placed in light warm loam succeeding very 

 indifferently. As to situation or exposure to wind, the Giant 

 Arbor-Vitse is almost totally indifferent, for we have planted it at 

 750 feet altitude on the hill-side, where almost fully exposed to 

 the south-west wind, and with every prospect of its attaining 

 goodly proportions in years to come. 



We cannot, however, exj^ect the Giant Arbor- Vitpe to attain 

 the large dimensions on the wind-swept hill-side which it does 

 in the warm and sheltered valley ; yet it is well suited for high- 

 lying and breezy situations in this country. At Benmore, in 

 Argyleshire, it is thriving luxuriantly at high altitudes, and in a 

 few instances, where planted in alluvial soil, it rivals the larch as 

 a rapid grower. Thuja gigantea is also one of the few trees 

 which the Prussian Government is introducing as useful additions 

 to the State forests. 



Quality of Timber. — The timber of this tree, as produced in its 

 native wilds, is, as every one knows who had the privilege to 

 behold the huge logs and well-dressed planks in the Canadian 

 Court of the late Colonial and Indian Exhibition, of very superior 

 quality, and held in high esteem in its native country for construc- 

 tive purposes, particularly by the cabinetmaker and boat-builder. 

 Being fine in the grain, of a yellowish-brown coloui", easily worked, 

 remarkably durable, and light in proportion to its bulk, it is 

 extensively used in the manufacture of furniture, for shingles, 

 household utensils, fencing purposes, and in the erection of houses 

 and outbuildings. On account of its lasting qualities, but parti- 

 cularly when subjected to dry and damp alternately, it has been 

 used largely for piles, while many of the canoes and boats made 

 on Vancouver Island are formed of this wood. It has been 

 recorded that in the repairing of an old fort in North- West 

 America, the only log found sound after twenty-one years' trial 

 was one of the Giant Ai'bor-Vitse. 



Professor Macoun told me that the huge log exhibited at the 

 Colonial Exhibition, and which was no less than 21 feet in girth, 

 and taken from a tree 150 feet in height, might be considered as 

 a fair sample of what was produced under favourable circum- 

 stances, and that the average dimensions reached by this stately 

 tree are but little less. The largest trees are usually hollow 

 for a short distance up the stem, but even then the outer 



