116 SILVA OF NORTH AMERICA. CONIFERS. 
Cupressus Nootkatensis is distributed from Sitka? southward through the islands and coast 
mountains of Alaska and British Columbia, along the Cascade Mountains of Washington and Oregon 
to the valley of the Santiam River and the slopes of Mt. Jefferson, and in Washington eastward to 
the headwaters of the Yakima River on the eastern slope of the range. In southern Alaska and 
northern British Columbia it attains its largest size in the forests of Spruce and Hemlock, ranging 
from the sea-level to elevations of two or three thousand feet; it is abundant at the sea-level on 
the west coast of Queen Charlotte’s Islands ;? it occurs sparingly in the interior of Vancouver’s 
Island,’ and on the high mountains immediately south of the Fraser River it grows to a large size in 
small isolated groups at an elevation of four thousand five hundred feet, and in small and shrubby 
forms a thousand feet higher. It is abundant in Washington on the Olympic Mountains and on the 
slopes of Mt. Ranier, frequently attaining the height of one hundred feet and forming a trunk three 
feet in diameter, while at high elevations it is reduced to a low shrub; farther south it is seldom 
large and is rare and local, growing usually as a low contorted tree on rocky cliffs and slopes generally 
at altitudes of about five thousand feet, or occasionally around the bases of the high isolated volcanic 
peaks descending to four thousand feet. 
Cupressus Nootkatensis is one of the most valuable timber-trees of North America, producing 
wood which is unsurpassed for cabinet-making by that of any other inhabitant of the continent; it is 
light and hard, rather brittle, very close-grained, exceedingly durable in contact with the soil, and easily 
worked, with a satiny surface susceptible of receiving a beautiful polish. It has an agreeable resinous 
odor, and is bright clear light yellow, with very thin nearly white sapwood, thin inconspicuous bands 
of small summer-cells, and numerous hardly distinguishable medullary rays. The specific gravity of 
the absolutely dry wood is 0.4782, a cubic foot weighing 29.80 pounds. In Alaska and British 
Columbia it is used in boat and ship building, the interior finish of houses, and the manufacture of 
furniture, and for many years was exported in large quantities to China, where it was employed as a 
substitute for satinwood. 
Cupressus Nootkatensis was discovered in October, 1793, on the shores of Nootka Sound by 
Menzies,* the surgeon and naturalist of Vancouver, on his voyage around the world. It was introduced 
into European gardens in 1850 through the Botanic Garden at St. Petersburg,’ and has proved hardy 
in western and central Europe, where many forms with peculiar habit and abnormally colored foliage 
have been produced in nurseries,’ and in the middle Atlantic states and in California, where it is 
occasionally cultivated.’ 
1 Rothrock, Smithsonian Rep. 1867, 455 (Fl. Alaska) (Thuya 5 Veitch, Man. Conif. 235. 
excelsa). — Meehan, Proc. Phil. Acad. 1884, 92.—F. Kurtz, Bot. 6 Beissner, Handb. Nadelh. 82. 
Jahrb. xix. 425 (Fl. Chilcatgebietes). — Funston, Contrib. U. S. Nat. 7 In the gardens of the United States and usually also in those 
Herb. iii. 328. of Europe, Cupressus Nootkatensis is cultivated under the name of 
2G. M. Dawson, Can. Nat. ser. 2, ix. 329. Thujopsis borealis. In European gardens it is also occasionally 
8 Macoun, Cat. Can. Pl. 461 (Thuya excelsa). cultivated as Thujopsis Tchugatskoy and as Thujopsis Tchugat- 
* See ii. 90. skoye. 
