136 SILVA OF NORTH AMERICA. CONIFER. 
the autumn, but does not fall until the following spring or summer ; it is oblong, more or less gibbous 
at the base, from three quarters of an inch to an inch in length, pendulous, light red-brown, and 
composed of six scales mucronulate below the apex ; those of the lowest rank are thin, broadly ovate, 
much recurved, and rather less than a quarter of an inch in length; those of the second rank are 
ovate-oblong, thick and woody in texture, nearly as long as the fruit, and often a third of an inch in 
width, wide-spreading at maturity from the thick erect woody septum formed by the union of the 
upper scales and marked at the base on the inner surface with two oblong collateral depressions caused 
by the growth of the seeds; these are two in number under each of the two middle scales, and are 
oblong-lanceolate, from one third to one half of an inch in length, semiterete and marked below by 
conspicuous pale basal hilums extending up both sides of the seed to above the middle; the seed-coat 
is membranaceous, of two layers, the inner being penetrated by large elongated resin-chambers filled 
with red liquid balsamic resin, and the outer produced into a lght red-brown membranaceous very 
oblique wing as long as the scale of the fruit and marked by a dark longitudinal suture. 
Libocedrus decurrens is distributed from the basin of the North Fork of the Santiam River in 
Oregon southward along the western slopes of the Cascade Mountains and the California Sierra Nevada, 
and along the California coast ranges from the southern borders of Mendocino County to the San 
Bernardino, San Jacinto, and Cuayamaca Mountains, finding its most southern home on the high Mount 
San Pedro Martir, half way down the peninsula of lower California,’ and occasionally crossing the 
Sierra Nevada of central California to western Nevada.’ Although widely scattered and not rare, it 
usually grows singly or in small isolated groves and does not form forests. It is comparatively rare in 
Oregon, where it ascends to altitudes of about five thousand feet, and also in the California coast 
ranges, growing on the San Jacinto and San Bernardino Mountains at elevations of from five to seven 
thousand feet ;° it is most abundant and attains its greatest size on the western slopes of the Sierras of 
central California, where it thrives in all sorts of soils at elevations of from three to five thousand feet. 
Although able to support more moisture at the roots than most of the other California conifers,’ it 
attains its greatest perfection on warm dry hillsides, on plateaus, and on the floors of open valleys, 
where, mingled with the Yellow Pine and the Black Oak, it is a magnificent feature of the forest, with 
its symmetrical crown of graceful yellow-green branchlets and its bright red-brown bark. 
Although often injured by dry rot, Libocedrus decurrens when in a healthy condition is 
one of the most valuable timber-trees of western North America. The wood is light, soft, close- 
grained, and very durable in contact with the soil, but not strong; it contains thin dark-colored 
conspicuous bands of small summer-cells and numerous obscure medullary rays, and is ight reddish 
brown, with thin nearly white sapwood. The specific gravity of the absolutely dry wood is 0.4017, a 
cubic foot weighing 25.03 pounds. It is largely used for fencing, for laths and shingles, for the 
interior finish of buildings and for furniture, and in the construction of flumes. The bark is rich in 
tannin.” 
Lnbocedrus decurrens ° was discovered by Frémont on the upper waters of the Sacramento River 
in 1846, and appears to have been first cultivated in 1853 at Edinburgh. It is now a common 
inhabitant of the parks and gardens of western and central Europe, where it grows rapidly and promises 
to attain a large size ; it is also occasionally cultivated in the eastern United States, growing luxuriantly 
in the neighborhood of the city of Washington, and proving precariously hardy as far north as the 
valley of the lower Hudson River. Forms of Libocedrus decurrens of abnormal habit and with 
glaucous foliage which have originated in European gardens are occasionally cultivated.’ 
1 Brandegee, Zod. iv. 210. 6 In California Libocedrus decurrens is sometimes also called 
2 ‘Watson, King’s Rep. v. 335. Bastard Cedar and Post Cedar. 
3S. B. Parish, Zoé, iv. 352. 7 Beissner, Handb. Nadelh. 30. 
* Muir, Mountains of California, 169, f. In European gardens Libocedrus decurrens is still frequently cul- 
5 Trimble, Garden and Forest, ix. 162. tivated as Thuya gigantea. (See R. Brown Campst. Gard. Chron. 
1873, 8.) 
