Handbook of Trees of the jS^ortiiejin States and Cax. 



45 



The Red Cedar is usually not over 40 or 50 

 it. in height, hut exceptionally twice as tall, 

 with trunk from 2-3 ft. or more in diameter. 

 This is frequently buttressed and is vested in a 

 fibrous bark which exfoliates lengthwise in 

 strips. While young its top is generally nar- 

 row and spire-siiapcd, imt with age its branches 

 ■elongate and lop outwards, forming finally a 

 wide irregular pyramidal or rounded top. It 

 i& a tree of wide distribution and found alike 

 on dry gravelly slopes, rocky ridges and less 

 abundantly on rich bottom lands. Its pic- 

 turesque form is a feature of almost every 

 southern land.scape from the sand-hills of the 

 coast to the valleys of the interior, and on the 

 bluffs of the New England coast sturdy in- 

 ■dividuals combat the winds close to the ocean's 

 fipray. 



Its light fragrant wood of which a cubic 

 foot when absolutely dry weighs .30.70 lbs. is 

 ■of a purple-red color, very durable and pe- 

 culiarly valuable for making moth-p-roof chests 

 for clothing, for wooden ware, lead pencil 

 coverings, fence posts, et •., and its berries and 

 foliage possess medicinal properties. i 



Leaves of two sorts, scale-like, opposite, closely 

 appressed, one-sixteentli in. long and forming o 

 .slender 4-sided branchlet, generally acute or obtuse, 

 glandular-dotted and dark green, or on young or 

 vigorous shoots subulate, V>-% in. long and lighter 

 green ; buds naked. Floin is in very early spring, 

 terminal, dioecious : staininatc with 10 or 12 

 stamens with rounded iMitirc coiHU'ct ivos and gen- 

 erally 4 pollen sacs : pistillate with violet-colored 

 acute and spreading scales. Fruit subglobosp. 

 about Vi in. in diameter, dark blue with glaucous 

 bloom, at maturity sweetish resinous flesh and 

 usimlly 1 or '2 acute seeds; cotyledons. - 



1. A. W., I, 25. 



2. For genus see p. 422. 



