LIBOCEDRUS DECURRENS i8i 



of foliage, by its leaves as if splashed with thick 

 patches of whitewash between its very distinct green 

 upraised margins on the under-side of the leaf, calls 

 for very little help from anyone to make it easily 

 distinguishable. 



It is the one case, above all, among all Cypresses 

 and Thuyas of which we may say with confidence 

 that a sight will suffice, and that ever afterwards a 

 remembrance and recognition of it should remain 

 implanted in the eye and mind of the Conifer student. 

 It hails from Japan, and though it was heard of and 

 en evidence as far back as the eighteenth century, it 

 does not seem to have come to sta}' until the middle 

 of the next century ; and when it did, owing, it must 

 be presumed, to some climatic conditions, it did not 

 attain the height to which it grows in its native 

 lands. It is said to show partiality for shade and 

 moisture, and to grow better from cuttings than from 

 seed. The wood is well spoken of. A full descrip- 

 tion of its cones and leaves appears in the table, 

 p. 292. 



LiBocEDRUs Decurrens, or Incense Cedar. — 



Numa the rites of strict religion knew. 

 On every altar laid the incense due. 



Prior. 



It has not often fallen to my lot to play cicerone 

 among trees, and then only more among the trees of 

 my own homestead. On those infrequent occasions 

 it is seldom that I have been questioned as to the' 

 origin of a name. One only exception there is to a 

 normal quietude upon such subjects, and that is as 

 to the derivation of the name Libocedrus. It was 

 once asked whether the name had any occult con- 

 nection with a Cedar that had taken a liberty, meaning 

 thereby whether it was a freak or sport produced 

 from that venerable tree they all knew so well by 



