134 
SILVA OF NORTH AMERICA. 
CONIFER. 
China.’ Species of Libocedrus analogous to those now existing in South America inhabited Greenland 
during the cretaceous period and then spread over Europe, well-defined traces of their existence in tertiary 
times appearing in the miocene rocks of Spitzenbergen and in central Europe, and in amber deposits.” 
Libocedrus produces durable wood used in construction and for many rural purposes, the most 
valuable timber-trees of the genus being the South American Libocedrus cupressoides,’ the New 
Zealand Libocedrus Bidwillii* and Libocedrus plumosa,® the North American Libocedrus decurrens, 
and the Chilian Libocedrus Chilensis.® 
The North American Libocedrus is not known to suffer from insect enemies, but its value as a 
timber-tree is seriously impaired by fungal disease.’ 
The species of Libocedrus can be propagated by seeds and by cuttings made from branches of 
the year. 
The generic name, from AGé¢ and Cedrus, relates to the resinous character of these trees. 
1 Libocedrus macrolepis, Bentham & MHooker, Gen. iii. 426 
(1880). — Beissner, Handb. Nadelth. 30. 
Calocedrus macrolepis, Kurz, Jour. Bot. xi. 196, t. 133 (1873). 
2 Saporta, Origine Paléontologique des Arbres, 97. — Zittel, Handb. 
Paleontolog. ii. 315. 
8 Libocedrus cupressoides. 
Pinus cupressoides, Molina, Saggio sulla storia naturale del 
Chile, 168 (1782). 
Thuya tetragona, Hooker, Lond. Jour. Bot. iii. 148, t. 4 (1844). 
Libocedrus tetragona, Endlicher, Syn. Conif. 44 (1847). — Par- 
latore, De Candolle Prodr. xvi. pt. ii. 454. 
Libocedrus cupressoides, the Alerse of Chili, which in the shel- 
tered ravines of the Valdivian Andes is a tree from eighty to one 
hundred feet high, with a trunk occasionally ten feet in diameter, 
and at high elevations and on the shores of the Straits of Magellan 
a low much-branched bush, is distributed from southern Chili to 
Patagonia. The soft straight-grained wood is easily split and 
worked, and is almost indestructible by the action of weather. 
The trunks of the Alerse are used for the masts and spars of 
vessels, and are often manufactured into shingles and lumber 
employed for fencing and in construction of all sorts. The inner 
bark, which is imperishable in water, is used to calk the seams 
of boats and small vessels. (See P. Parker King, Narratwe of the 
Surveying Voyage of His Majesty’s Ships Adventure and Beagle, i. 
282. — C. Gay, Fl. Chil. v. 407.) 
* Hooker f. Fl. New Zeal. i. 257 (1867). 
Libocedrus Bidwillii is a tree from fifty to eighty feet in height, 
with a trunk sometimes three feet in diameter, which is widely 
scattered through the mountain forests of New Zealand, some- 
times ascending on the west coast of the Southern Island to ele- 
vations of nearly four thousand feet. The wood is red, straight- 
grained, light and brittle, but extremely durable ; in New Zealand 
it is used in construction and for piles, the posts and rails of 
fences, railway-ties, telegraph-poles, shingles, and weather-boards. 
(See Kirk, Forest Fl. New Zeal. 159, t. 82°, f. 2, 83.) 
5 Libocedrus plumosa. 
Dacrydium plumosum, D. Don, Lambert Pinus, ed. 2, ii. Appx. 
143 (1828). —A. Cunningham, Ann. Nat. Hist. i. 213. 
Thuya Doniana, Hooker, Lond. Jour. Bot. i. 571, t. 18 (1842). — 
Hooker f. J. c. 231. 
Libocedrus Doniana, Endlicher, Syn. Conif. 43. — Parlatore, 
De Candolle Prodr. xvi. pt. 11. 454. 
Libocedrus plumosa, a comparatively rare tree and confined to 
the Northern Island, is distinguished while young by its much 
flattened crowded branchlets giving a plume-like appearance to 
the branches, and is often one hundred feet high, with a straight 
naked trunk four or five feet in diameter, covered with the long 
ribbon-like loose scales of the reddish bark. The wood is light, 
strong, very durable, straight-grained, and dark red handsomely 
marked with darker stripes ; it is used in fencing, in construction, 
and for shingles, and is highly esteemed for cabinet-making and 
the interior finish of houses. (See Kirk, J. c. 158, t. 82, 82°, f. 1.) 
6 Endlicher, Syn. Conif. 44 (1847).— Parlatore, De Candolle 
Prodr. xvi. pt. i. 455. 
Thuya Chilensis, D. Don, Lambert Pinus, ii. 19 (1824).— 
Hooker, Lond. Jour. Bot. ii. 199, t. 4. 
Thuya Andina, Poeppig & Endlicher, Nov. Gen. et Spec. iii. 17 
t. 220 (1845). 
Libocedrus Chilensis is a tree fifty or sixty feet in height, with 
a short trunk frequently branched from the base and a compact 
symmetrical pyramidal head, growing on the lower slopes of the 
Andes of southern Chili from latitude 34° south to Valdivia. The 
soft straight-grained red wood is largely used in Chili in the interior 
finish of houses. (See C. Gay, l. c. 406.) 
7 The trunks of Libocedrus decurrens are frequently honey- 
combed and its value as a timber-tree destroyed by Dedalea vorax 
(Harkness, Pacific Rural Press, Jan. 25, 1879), which destroys 
rounded masses of the wood, disposed in long rows sometimes 
extending through the length of the trunk, reducing them to cin- 
der-like powder. It is also said to be attacked by Gymnosporan- 
gium biseptatum, Ellis, which in the eastern states lives upon Cu- 
pressus thyoides, and by a few other unimportant fungi. 
