558 EVERGREEN TREES AXD SHRUBS. 



markably fragrant, and of a dark red color ; making it pleasing to 

 the senses as well as valuable in the arts. It grows from thirty to 

 forty feet in height, and assumes a variety of forms in different soils 

 and parts of the country. On the banks of the Hudson River, and 

 streams farther north, it is usually a compactly conical tree ; at the 

 west and south, it grows in more irregularly-pyramidal forms, with 

 much freer and more open branching. " The red cedar varies ex- 

 ceedingly from seed ; some are low and spreading, and others tall 

 and fastigiate ; some bearing male blossoms, and others female 

 ones. The foliage in some is of a very light hue ; in others it is 

 glaucus, and in some a very dark green." (Loudon.) 



The red cedar just falls short of being one of the most beautiful 

 of evergreens. When grown in rich, deep soil, it assumes an irreg- 

 ular and spirited outline. While young, in such soils, the length 

 of its side branches, which take a horizontal direction near the 

 ground, give it the appearance of a free-growing evergreen shrub, 

 of a less formal character than any other evergreen we have. In 

 gracefulness of growth it is only excelled by the hemlock, and it 

 exceeds that tree in the diversity of its forms. The foliage in 

 spring and summer varies greatly in color on different trees, from a 

 bluish to a yellowish green. On old trees the sunny side often 

 exhibits great warmth of tone, and a soft blending of strong lights 

 and shades on the rounded details of its contour. But in winter, 

 though called an evergreen, its foliage turns to a dull brown that is 

 rarely pleasing; and occasionally it is tinged with this color in 

 excessively hot, dry weather. This winter color, however, is thrown 

 off with the returning warmth of spring, and the foliage resumes 

 its natural green some weeks before the new growth shows itself. 



The elder Michaux made a mistake, in which Downing followed 

 him, of supposing that the red cedar flourished best near tide-water ; 

 and that in the western States " it is confined to spots where the 

 calcareous rock shows itself naked, or is so thinly covered with 

 mould as to forbid the vegetation of other trees" (Michaux). Cer- 

 tainly it seems greatly at home in a soil not far removed from 

 limestone rock, but it is most luxuriant in deep, alluvial soils above 

 such rock. On the islands in the west end of Lake Erie, on the 

 shores of Sandusky Bay, and on the banks of the Maumee river, 



