230 TREES OF MINNESOTA. 



years on the grounds of the Minnesota Experiment Station with- 

 out serious injury, and has made pretty specimens about six feet 

 high and nearly as broad. It undoubtedly prefers a moist soil- 

 though it has done very well on good retentive upland. The 

 wood is of very little value, but is used within its range for cheap 

 packing cases, etc. 



Genus THUJA. 



Flowers mostly monoecious, on different branches in small 

 terminal catkins, opening in May; anther cells, two to four. 

 Scales of the pistillate flowers, eight to twelve. Ovules, two to 

 four. Fruit an erect, dry, loose cone, from one-third to one-half 

 of an inch long, maturing in the autumn of the first season, but 

 remaining on the branch until the appearance of the new growth 

 the following spring. Seeds oval, about one-eighth of an inch 

 wide, and winged all round. Leaves evergreen, small, awl or 

 scale shaped, closely imbricated and appressed so as to make a 

 flat two-edged branchlet. On the leading shoots the leaves are 

 often one-quarter of an inch long. A small genus of evergreen 

 trees and shrubs. Only one species, the Arborvitse, comes within 

 our range. 



Thuja occidentalis. Arborvitae. White Cedar. 



A tree fifty or sixty feet high, seldom two feet in diameter, but 

 occasionally much larger than this. There are many varieties, 

 the most of which are characterized by some peculiar habit of the 

 branches or by peculiar coloring of the leaves. 



Distribution. From the valley of the St. Lawrence to north- 

 ern Pennsylvania and North Carolina, and from the Atlantic to 

 Central Minnesota. A very common tree in cold swamps 

 and along river banks and lake shores where the soil is moist. 

 In Minnesota very common in the northeastern portion, west to 

 Roseau county and south to the south shore of Mille Lacs and 

 the mouth of Snake river. It also occurs occasionally as far 

 south as the southeastern portion of Winona county. In some 

 sections, as along the Mississippi river, in the northern part of 

 Aitkin county, it covers large areas with an almost impenetrable 

 growth, which are known as cedar swamps. Not found in the 

 western or southwestern parts of this state. 



