116 AMERICAN FOREST TREES 



this tree. The seeds are fairly abundant, are light, have good wing 

 power, and are great travelers in search of suitable places to germinate 

 and take root. The tree's greatest enemy is fire. The cedar's bark is 

 thin, even when trunks are mature, and a moderate blaze often proves 

 fatal to large trees; but small ones, with all their branches close to the 

 ground, have no chance when the fire burns the litter among them. 

 Some tree seeds germinate readily on soil bared by fire such as lodge- 

 pole pine, wild red cherry, and paper birch but the western red cedar's 

 do not, if the humus is sufficiently burned to lessen the soil's capacity to 

 retain moisture. For that reason, this cedar seldom follows fire, and the 

 result is that it constantly loses ground. Under normal conditions, it is 

 not exacting in its requirements; but anything that disturbs natural 

 conditions is more likely to harm than help this cedar. In that respect it 

 is like beech and hemlock, which suffer when forest conditions are dis- 

 turbed. 



Trunks are large but not shapely. They are generally fluted, and 

 greatly swelled at the base. These deformities develop rather late in the 

 tree's life; at least, they are not prominent in young timber. Western 

 cedar poles of large size are beautiful in outline; but when maturity 

 approaches, the trunk grows faster near the ground than some distance 

 above; the annual rings are wider near the base than twenty feet above, 

 resulting hi great enlargement near the ground. At the same time ribs 

 and creases slowly develop, and by the time the tree is old, it is as un- 

 gainly as one of the giant sequoias. Its appearance is hurt by character- 

 istics other than the swelled base and the buttresses. While the tree is 

 small, the limbs ascend, and maintain a graceful upright position. 

 Toward middle life they begin to droop, and the limbs of old trees hang 

 down the trunks the reverse of then" attitude in early life. 



The western red cedar lives to an old age, from 600 to 1,000 years. 

 The oldest are liable to be hollow near the ground. The tree is remark- 

 able for what happens after it falls. Often the trunk crashes down in a 

 bed of moss, which in a few years buries it from sight. The moss holds 

 so much water that the buried log is constantly too wet for fungous attack. 

 Consequently decay does not take place. Fallen trees have lain for 

 hundreds of years as much as 800 having been claimed in one instance 

 and at the end of that time they are sound enough for shingles. The 

 position of living trees growing upon buried logs furnishes the key to the 

 length of time since the trunks fell. The long period during which the 

 moss-buried wood has remained sound has led to the claim that western 

 red cedar is the most enduring wood in America. Such is not necessarily 

 the case. A good many others would probably last as long if protected 

 in the same way. 



