CONIFER. 
SILVA OF NORTH AMERICA. 127 
fertile, although those of the lower of these ranks often bear only single seeds. The seed is about 
an eighth of an inch long and nearly surrounded by thin wings as wide as its body. 
Thuya occidentalis is distributed from the neighborhood of Annapolis, Nova Scotia, through New 
Brunswick, Quebec, and Ontario, where it is abundant, northward nearly to Lake Mistassinni and the 
shores of James Bay, the line of the northern limits of its range, then crossing the Albany River at 
some distance from its mouth, trends southwestward to the southern borders of Lake Winnipeg, its 
most northwesterly recorded station being on the shores of Cedar Lake, near the mouth of the Saskatch- 
ewan ;* it ranges through the northern states to southern New Hampshire, central Massachusetts and 
New York, northern Pennsylvania, central Michigan, northern Illinois and central Minnesota, and along 
the high Alleghany Mountains to southern Virginia. Very common in the north, except in the 
elevated mountain regions of northern New England and New York, and the coast region south of 
New Hampshire, it is frequently spread over great areas of springy swamp-land, which it covers with 
nearly impenetrable forests, and often occupies the rocky banks of streams where its roots can penetrate 
between the crevices of the ledges and obtain an abundant supply of moisture. Toward the southern 
limits of its range it is less abundant and smaller, and on the southern Alleghany Mountains it is 
found only at high elevations on the borders of streams where individual trees sometimes grow to a 
large size. 
The wood of Thuya occidentalis is light, soft, brittle, and rather coarse-grained, and very 
durable in contact with the soil; it is fragrant and light yellow-brown, turning darker with exposure, 
with thin nearly white sapwood, and contains thin dark-colored bands of small summer-cells and 
numerous obscure medullary rays. The specific gravity of the absolutely dry wood is 0.3164, a cubic 
foot weighing 19.72 pounds. It is largely used in Canada and the northern states for fence-posts and 
rails, railway-ties, and shingles. The thick layers of sapwood, which are easily separated, are 
manufactured by the Canadian Indians into baskets and are used to strengthen birch-bark canoes ; * 
and the fresh branches frequently serve as brooms.’ Fluid extracts and tinctures are made from the 
young branchlets, and are sometimes employed in the treatment of amenorrhea and catarrhal affections, 
and externally to remove warts and fungal growths,‘ and also in homeopathic practice.® 
Thuya occidentalis, which was probably the first North American tree introduced into Europe, 
was cultivated in Paris before the middle of the sixteenth century, and the earliest account of it was 
published by Belon in 1558. For at least a hundred years it has been a favorite garden plant, and in 
cultivation has produced many forms distinguished by their abnormal habit and by the coloring of the 
leaves, which sometimes are bright yellow ;7 in the northern United States it has been largely planted 
to form hedges,’ although on high dry ground, or when fully exposed to the wind, these frequently suffer 
during severe winters. 
1 Brunet, Cat. Vég. Lig. Can. 59. — Bell, Rep. Geolog. Surv. Can. 
1879-80, 47°. — Macoun, Cat. Can. Pl. 459. 
2 Provancher, Flore Canadienne, ii. 558. — Porcher, Resources of 
Southern Fields and Forests, 507. 
8 Kalm, Travels, English ed. iii. 173. 
4 Schoepf, Mat. Med. Amer. 143. — Rafinesque, Med. Fl. ii. 
268. — Griffith, Med. Bot. 609. — Johnson, Man. Med. Bot. N. Am. 
260. — U. S. Dispens. ed. 16, 1492. 
5 Hamilton, Fl. Homeopathica, ii. 202, t. 63. — Millspaugh, Am. 
Med. Pl. in Homeopathic Remedies, ii. 165, t. 165. 
6 Arbor Vite, Belon, Arb. Conif. 13.—Dodoens, Hist. Stirp. 
Pemp. 857, f. —Gerarde, Herball, 1186, f. — Clusius, Hist. Pl. 1. 
36. — Parkinson, Theatr. 1478, f. 
Cedrus Lycia. Arbor vite, Lobel, Stirp. Hist. 630, f. 
Arbor vite Gallis, Dalechamps, Hist. Gen. Pl. i. 60. 
Thuya Theophrasti, C. Bauhin, Pinaz, 488. 
Arbor Vitae, sive Paradisiaca vulgo dicta, odorata ad Sabinam 
accedens, J. Bauhin, Hist. Pl. i. lib. ix. 286, f. 
Thuja strobilis levibus: squamis obtusis, Linneus, Hort. Cliff. 
449; Hort. Ups. 289. — Royen, Fl. Leyd. Prodr. 87. 
7 Beissner (Handb. Nadelh. 32) enumerates forty varieties of 
Thuya occidentalis, and there are several others which are known 
only in American gardens. Many of them show their distinctive 
peculiarities only while young, and soon grow into the normal 
form, and to several originating independently in different nurseries 
more than one name has been given. Although interesting as show- 
ing the tendency of the tree to vary in cultivation, none of these 
forms equals in beauty the original type, which, stiff and formal in 
outline when planted as an isolated specimen on high ground, is 
admirably suited for massing on the borders of streams and lakes. 
8 Downing, Landscape Gardening, ed. H. W. Sargent, 267.— 
Warder, Hedges and Evergreens, 42, 260. 
