254 LIBOCEDRUS DONIANA. 



singly or in small groves amongst the other coniferous trees of the 

 region. Its timber is highly valued ; the wood is light, durable and 

 close-grained, but not very strong ; it is used for a great variety of 

 purposes, including house furniture and indoor carpentry.* 



The California!! Incense Cedar was originally discovered by 



Col. Fremontf near the upper waters of the Sacramento river in 1846. 



, His botanical collections were placed in the hands of Dr. Torrey for 



determination, and this tree was described by him in the "Smithsonian 



Contributions to Knowledge" in 1850 as Libocedrus decurrens. Two years 



later, John Jeffrey who had been sent to north-west America by the 



Scottish Oregon Association, sent home specimens and seeds from South 



Oregon, and from these the tree was named Thuia Oraujiana in 



compliment to Sir W. Gibson Craig, a prominent member of the 



Association, and the seedlings were subsequently distributed under this 



name. The confusion hi name thus created was further complicated by 



Carriere who described the species from herbarium specimens sent by 



Boursier to the Museum d'Histoire Naturelle at Paris in several 



publications^: under the name of Thuia giyantea, on the assumption that 



it was the same tree that Nuttall had published under that name. 



Unfortunately, Carriere's name was taken up by horticulturists generally 



both in England and on the Continent, so that for a time scarcely any 



other pair of coniferous trees has been surrounded by more confusion 



than Torrey's Libocedrus decurrens and Nuttall's Thuia gigantea. 



The introduction of Libocedrus decurrens enriched British gardens 



with one of the most beautiful and distinct of the Conifers of 



western North America. Stately columnar trees from 30 to 50 or 



more feet high now adorn the lawns and pleasure grounds of numerous 



country seats throughout Great Britain and Ireland. It is perfectly 



hardy ; it grows satisfactorily in almost any description of soil not 



marshy or water-logged, increasing in height annually from 9 to 15 



inches, the rate of growth corresponding nearly with the range of 



annual rainfall. 



Libocedrus Doniana. 



A lofty tree with a straight naked trunk sometimes 100 feet high 

 and 2 5 feet in diameter, the old bark falling away in long 

 thin ribbons. Branches few ; branchlets distichous, alternate and 

 flattened, but becoming four-angled in old trees. Leaves variable in 

 form and arrangement at different stages of growth ; the primordial 

 leaves of young plants narrowly linear and spreading ; on the adult 

 tree dimorphic, arranged in decussate pairs ; the lateral pairs compressed, 

 acute, sharply keeled and attached by broad bases; the dorsiventral 

 pairs concrescent, small, rhomboidal. Stamina te flowers with eight ten 

 anthers?. Strobiles composed of four ligneous scales each with a curved 



* Silva of North America, X. 136. 



f His name is commemorated by the beautiful monotypic Malvaceous shrub Fremont ia 

 califomica. 



$ Revue Horticole (1854), p. 224. Van Houtte's Flore des Serres, IX. 199. Traite 

 General des Coniferes, ed. I. 105, etc. 



