CALLITRIS. 37 



frequently abortive, and sometimes bent backwards towards the 

 base of the cones. 



A dense conical bush, growing 8 or 10 feet high, on the 

 mountains of Tartary and Northern Asia, very distinct from 

 the Chinese Arbor-Vitae, and reproduced from seed. 



SECTION— Doubtful Kinds. 



No. 4. Biota Meldensis, Lawson, the French Hybrid Arbor- 

 Vitae. 

 Syn. Thuja hybrida, Hort. 

 „ „ Meldensis, French Gardens. 



Leaves, needle-shaped, decurrent, sharp-pointed, and in op- 

 posite distant pairs, somewhat spirally placed along the branches, 

 glaucous on both sides when young, but of a light shining green 

 when old, quite stiff, and extended outwards. Stem and branches 

 ascending, lateral ones loose, spreading, and irregularly placed 

 along the main branches ; branchlets, very slender, rather droop- 

 ing, and distantly clothed with sharp-pointed leaves. Cones 

 said to be like those of the common Arbor-Vitae. 



This plant is said to be a hybrid between the Chinese Arbor- 

 Vitae and the common Red Cedar, and to have been raised at 

 Meaux in France. It, however, has very much the appearance, 

 when young, of an attenuated variety of the Virginian or Red 

 Cedar, and is a very doubtful hybrid, having not the least 

 appearance of the Arbor-Vitae in it. 



It is quite hardy. 



Gen. CALLITRIS. Ventenat 



Flowers, monoecious, or male and female on the same plant, 

 but separate and terminal, the male catkins globular, female 

 ones solitary. 



