White Cedar 



103 



I. WHITE CEDAR Chamaecypaxis thyoides (Linnaeus) B. S. P. 



Ciipressiis thyoides Linnaeus. ChamcBcyparis splmroidea Spach 



Probably the most beautiful of our eastern cone-bearing trees, this occurs in 

 swamps and \ery wet woods from southern Maine near the Atlantic and Gulf 

 coasts to western Mississippi, often standing in i meter of water, sometimes forming 

 pure forests. Its maximum height is 24 meters, with a trunk diameter of about 

 1.2 meters. It is also called Swamp cedar and Juniper. 



Fig. 78. White Cedar, southern New Jersey. 



The trunk is tall and straight; the slender horizontally spreading branches 

 form a narrowly conic tree. The bark is about 2 cm. thick, irregularly furrowed 

 into narrow flatfish, ridges which separate into long reddish brown, fibrous scales. 

 The twigs are flattish, light green, becoming round, reddish brown, and finally 

 dark brown. The leaves are bluish green, dull, scale-Hke, ovate, i to 2 mm. long, 

 4-ranked, imbricated, sharp-pointed, keeled, closely appressed, except on young or 

 vigorous twigs, where they are awl-shaped with spreading tips; they bear a small 

 but distinct gland on the back; they turn reddish brown after two years, but re- 

 main on the branchlets for several years longer; those of seedlings are linear, 

 sharply pointed, spreading, 5 or 6 mm. long. The flowers appear in March or 

 April; the staminate are oblong, 2 to 3 mm. long, their 10 to 12 stamens with 

 broad ovate connectives; the pistillate flowers are about 2 mm. in diameter, of a 

 reddish color and have about 6 sharp-pointed ovate spreading fertile scales each 



