Thuya 193 



5. Var. dumosa. A dwarf shrub, with the foliage and branchlets of var. plicata. 



6. Var. pendula. A shrub with pendulous branches and branchlets. 



7. Var. erecta. Branches slender and erect. In var. erecta viridis the foliage 

 is dark green and shining on the upper surface. It originated in Messrs, Paul's 

 nurseries at Cheshunt.^ 



8. Var. Spdthi. A monstrous form, with seedling foliage on the younger 

 branchlets, older branchlets being tetragonal, and clothed with sharp-pointed adult 

 leaves. 



9. Various forms occur with coloured foliage, as lutea, aurea, vervceneana, etc. 

 Thuya occidentalis was probably the first American tree cultivated in Europe. 



Belon- describes it as occurring in a garden at Paris about the middle of the 

 sixteenth century. It was introduced into England prior to 1597, as it is mentioned 

 by Gerard in his 77(?r(5// published in that year. (A. H.) 



Distribution, etc. 



According to Sargent, Thuya occidentalis frequently forms nearly impenetrable 

 forests on swampy ground, or occupies the rocky banks of streams from Nova 

 Scotia and New Brunswick, north-westward to Cedar Lake at the mouth of the 

 Saskatchewan, and southward through the northern * states to southern New 

 Hampshire, central Massachusetts and New York, northern Pennsylvania, central 

 Michigan, northern Illinois, and central Minnesota, and along the high Alleghany 

 mountains to southern Virginia and north-eastern Tennessee ; very common in the 

 north, less abundant and of smaller size southward ; on the southern Alleghany 

 mountains only at high elevations. 



Mr. James M. Macoun says of this tree in his excellent pamphlet. The Forest 

 Wealth of Canada (Ottawa, 1904), that the white cedar, as it is there usually called 

 though in New England this name is always given to Cupressus thyoides is very 

 rare in Nova Scotia, but abundant throughout New Brunswick and Ontario. It 

 grows to a considerable height, but seldom exceeds 2 feet in diameter. The wood 

 is soft and not strong, and has never been much used for timber, but is unexcelled 

 for shingles. It is chiefly used for fence rails and posts, railway ties, and telegraph 

 posts. No other wood is used in any quantity for telegraph poles in Ontario and 

 Quebec. It is very durable in contact with the soil or when exposed to the 

 weather. 



I saw the tree abundantly in wet swamps and also on dry ground near Ottawa, 

 where, in Rockcliff Park, good though not large trees of it may be seen, the best 

 having all been cut out for telegraph poles. On dry, rocky ground the tree grows 

 freely from the stool, and in wet places in the woods reproduces abundantly from 

 seed, which was ripe at the end of September, and, as usual in the forests of Canada, 

 germinates and grows best when it falls on a rotten log. 



' Card. Chron. xiv. 213 (1880). ^ Belon, De ArboHbus Coni/eris, p. 13 (1553). 



I 2C 



