IN EXTRA-TROPICAL COUNTRIES. 327 



instances known to have attained even a height of 325 feet, 

 with a stem 22 feet in diameter ; furnishing a valuable build- 

 ing-timber of a pale or light-yellow colour, known as the 

 Oregon White Cedar-wood, susceptible of high polish. It is 

 light, soft, smooth and durable, and makes the finest sashes, 

 doors, mouldings, and similar articles (Vasey) . Canoes carry- 

 ing four tons have been obtained out of one stem. The bast 

 can be converted into ropes and mats. The tree can be trained 

 into hedges and bowers. 



Thuya occidentalis, Linne. 



North America, particularly frequent in Canada. Northern 

 White Cedar, or Arbor vitse. A fine tree, 70 feet high ; 

 the wood is reddish or yellowish, fine-grained, very tough and 

 resinous, light, soft, and well fit for building, especially for 

 water-work ; also for turnery and machinery. Michaux men- 

 tions that posts of this wood last forty years ; a house built 

 of it was found perfectly sound after sixty years. It prefers 

 moist soil. Valuable for hedge copses; it can also be trained 

 into garden bowers. Porcher says that it makes the finest 

 ornamental hedge or screen in the ' United States, attaining 

 any required height and being very compact and beautiful ; 

 such hedges, indeed, were observed by the writer himself many 

 years ago in Rio de Janeiro. The shoots and also an essential 

 oil of this tree are used in medicine ; the bast can be converted 

 into ropes. The branches serve for brooms. 



Thuyopsis dolabrata, Siebold and Zuccarini. 



Japan. A majestic tree, of conical shape and drooping habit, 

 50 feet high, attaining a stem 3 feet in diameter. It delights 

 in shaded and rather moist situations, used in China and 

 Japan for avenues. Quite hardy in England (Hoopes). It 

 furnishes an excellent hard timber of a red colour. 



Ihymelsea tinctoria, Endlicher. (Passerina tinctoria, Pourr.) 

 Portugal, Spain, South France. A small shrub. It yields a 

 yellow dye. Cursorily it may be noted here that some of the 

 Australian Pimelse contain a blue pigment, which has not yet 

 been fully tested. Their bark produces more or less of daph- 

 nin and of the volatile acrid principle for which the bark of 

 Daphne Mezereum (L.) is used. These are remarkably de- 

 veloped in the Victorian Pimelea stricta (Meissn.). The bark 

 of many is also pervaded by a tough fibre, that of the tall 

 Pimelea clavata (Labill.), a West Australian bush, being 

 particularly tenacious, and used for whips. 



