246 THUIA OCCIDENTALS. 



with smooth brown bark and frequently dividing at a greater or less 

 distance from the ground into two or more secondary stems. Branches 

 short, spreading, sometimes curved or tortuous, covered with smooth 

 reddish brown bark, and terminating in flat branchlet systems in 

 which the ramification of the axial shoots is distichous and alternate, 

 this branching being repeated three times, and the latest growths 

 almost always on the anterior side of the next older. Leaves per- 

 sistent on the axial growths three four years, becoming effete in 

 the second and third years, ovate, acute, closely imbricated and 

 often glandular ; on the lateral growths smaller, the lateral pairs com- 

 pressed and sharply keeled, the dorsiventral pairs flat, concrescent 

 and mostly glandular ; the young branchlets and their appendages light 

 dull green, changing to yellowish brown in winter and emitting 

 a strong aromatic odour when bruised. Staminate flowers with four 

 anthers. Strobiles about O5 inch long, composed of eight ten 

 ovate, obtuse scales, of which the larger middle pairs are fertile, 

 each scale bearing two seeds, the seeds bordered by a thin wing on 

 each side. 



Thuia occidentalis, Linnfeus, Sp. Plant. II. 1002, exclu. hab. Siberia (1753). 

 Michaux, Hist. Arbr. Amer. III. 29, t. 3 (1813). L. C. Richard, Mem sur 

 les Conif. 43 (1826). London, Arb. et Frut. Brit. IV. 2454, with figs. Endlicher, 

 Synops. Conif. 51. Carriere, Traite Conif. ed. II. 108. Parlatore, D. C. 

 Prodr. XVI. 438 (Thuya). Hoopes, Evergreens, 317, with fig. Gordon, Pinet. 

 ed. II. 403. Macoun, Cat. Canad. Plants, 459. Beissner, K"adelholzk. 32, 

 with fig. Masters in Journ. R. Hort. Soc. XIV. 76 ; and Gard. Chron. XXL 

 ser. 3 (1897), p. 213, with figs. Sargent, Silva N. Amer. X. 126, t. 532. And 

 many others. 



Eng. Arbor Vita. Amer. White Cedar. Fr. Arbre de Vie. Germ. Lebensbanm. 

 Ital. Albero della Vita. 



Very many deviations from the common form have appeared under 

 cultivation either in seed beds or as branch-sports and have received 

 distinctive names at the hands of horticulturists, but it is extremely 

 doubtful whether the greater part of them can be now identified. 

 The following varieties are the most distinct still met with in British 

 gardens ; they are highly useful decorative plants for the lawn and 

 small gardens, being for the most part of better habit and colour than 

 the common form. 



Var. dumosa (syn. pygmcea). 



One of the dwarfest of Thuias ; a dense little confused bush seldom 

 growing more than 2 to 3 feet high, with branchlet systems 

 and foliage of a decided brown tint much like those of the variety 

 plicata. 



var. Ellwangeriana. 



A dwarf or medium-sized shrub with numerous erect or sub-erect 

 branches and slender branchlets at first clothed with dimorphic (juvenile and 

 adult) foliage ; the primordial leaves linear, acute, spreading ; the adult 

 leaves scale-like and concrescent as in the type. It is a transitional 

 form connecting the variety ericoides with the type. 



var. ericoides. 



A dwarf globose or sub-pyramidal bush with slender branchlets clothed 

 with linear primordial spreading leaves only, somewhat distantly arranged 



