'2'20. THUJA GIGANTEA GIANT CEDAU. 45 



main branchlets, and with from 8-12 erect scales fixed by the base and each 

 bearing 2-4 bottle-shaped ovules. Fruit, cones small, ovoid-oblong, erect, pale 

 brown with few (and in our species) thin, leathery, pointed oblong mucronate 

 scales, spreading at maturity, the two or three middle pairs larger than the others 

 and fertile, with generally two erect seeds at their bases; seeds in the American 

 species light brown with broad lateral wings distinct at apex, axile embryo and 

 fleshy albumen. 



A genus of four species of trees, two of which are North American, one of the 

 northeastern and one of the northwestern regions. (Name, from Greek, 0v, 

 / bum perfumes, in allusion to the fragrance of the smoke of the burning wood.) 



220. THUJA GIGANTEA, NUTT.* 



GIANT CEDAR, XORTH WESTERN RED CEDAR, PACIFIC ARBOR VITJE, 



SHINGLE-WOOD. 



Ger., Gigantische Zeder / Fr., Thuya gigantesque Sp., Cedro 



giganteo. 



SPECIFIC CHARACTERS: Leaves decussate, ovate, apiculate, adnate, about 1 in. 

 long (longer on leading shoots) with free tips, obscurely glandular-pitted 

 or eglandular, adnate and imbricated in four rows and forming a flat branch- 

 let about $ in. or a little- less in width. Flowers about 1 line in length, dark 

 brown, the fertile flowers less numerous and more confined to the extremities of 

 .the branchlets. Fruit, cones (mature in early autumn) generally clustered near 

 the ends of the branchlets, about i in. long, strongly reflexed, with the leathery 

 scales, which are furnished with stout mucros and each of the two or three cen- 

 tral pairs of scales bears 2 or 3 seeds which are about % in. long and rather 

 shorter than the wings, 



(The specific name is the Latin for gigantic, appropriately applying to the stat- 

 ure of the tree.) 



This tree, by far the stateliest representative of the genus, attains 

 the height of 200 ft. (60 m.) with a confusion of short, horizontal an I 

 geotropic branches forming a narrow pyramidal head. Seeming quite 

 out of proportion to the amount of its foliage is its massive trunk, 

 sometimes 15 or 18 ft. (50 m.) in diameter at its strongly buttressed 

 base and tapering gradually to its steeple-like summit. The bark of 

 trunk is thin, of a reddish-brown color and fissured into long strips 

 and fibrous ridges. 



HABITAT. This tree is distributed from southern Alaska southward 

 along the coast to Mendocino, California, and eastward to the western 

 slopes of the continental divide, thriving best on the low bol torn-lands 

 near the coast and attaining its largest size in western Washington and 

 Oiegon. Being scattered among other trees, it rarely forms exclusive 

 tracts of forest. 



PHYSICAL PROPERTIES. Wood very light, soft, not strong, of 

 rather coarse grain, splitting with facility, exceedingly durable in con- 

 tact with the soil, easily worked, and yielding a smooth surface. It 



* Thuja plicata, Don. 



