176 CYPRESSES AND JUNIPERS 



'* aromatic" in botanical writings generally refers to 

 what is fragrant, and sometimes to what seems to 

 be doubtfully fragrant ; whereas " rank " expresses 

 forcibly that our perceptions are not to expect any 

 pleasant impressions therefrom, — and these are 

 descriptive adjectives that appear frequently upon 

 the pages of standard authorities. 



In the specimens where the juvenile form of leaf is 

 retained, and before the day when scientists had 

 proved that they were one and the same, only in 

 youthful guise, they were named Retinospora. To- 

 day a commonly planted tree is more often spoken 

 of as the Retinospora Squarrosa, whereas, if you give 

 it its full and real title, it should read Cupressus 

 Pisifera var. Squarrosa. Several of the Thuyas — the 

 Orientalis, e.g. — masquerade in this juvenile attire. 

 The Occidentalis and Orientalis are particularly 

 inclined to this little habit. 



The Orientalis, or Biota, to which we refer later on, 

 like the Cupr. Lawsoniana, is of a very polymor- 

 phous habit. 



The word '' Thuya "is an old Greek word, BvUlj con- 

 nected with an old Greek verb {Ovw) that expressed 

 action in the direction of burnt sacrifices and incense, 

 and became thus associated with the more fragrant 

 woods employed in places of w^orship. 



Our old schoolboy recourse to the meanings of these 

 mysterious Greek-lettered words, Liddell and Scott, 

 tells us that it was a name applied to an African tree 

 with sweet-smelling wood, and that its Latin synonym 

 was cedrus ; whether it was Cedar, an African Arbor 

 Vitse (Callitris Quadrivalvis) was a matter in dispute. 

 But these unde derivatur excursions into the half- 

 buried past afford us more recreation than enlighten- 

 ment upon the problems of the present day. 



The Thuyas of to-day are divided into three 

 sections : (i) the Eu-thuya, comprising three species 



