WESTERN RED CEDAR: GIANT ARBOR- 

 V1T1E: Thuya plicata 



THIS species is known in the lumber trade as Western 

 Red Cedar, or just plain "Cedar"; and, like nearly all 

 the timber trees of the Pacific Slope, is a giant in compari- 

 son with trees in other parts of the world, though it cannot be 

 so classed among its neighbors. It is found from one hun- 

 dred and fifty to two hundred feet in height, with a diame- 

 ter of ten feet at the base. The stem assumes a distinctively 

 conical form, and in old trees the diameter at the base may 

 be nearly twice that twenty-five or thirty feet above. The 

 thickness of the annual rings of nearly all trees is greater 

 at the base than above at the same age, but this is strik- 

 ingly so with this tree. Another peculiarity of the tree is 

 the deep fluting of its stem prevalent from middle age on. 

 When young, and growing in the open, the slender limbs 

 shoot upward, but as age increases they gradually droop, 

 and at middle height stand out nearly horizontal, with 

 their ends gracefully curving upward, while the ends of 

 those lower down will rest on the ground. The limbs are 

 never large, and the tree being tolerant of shade, they are 

 prone to adhere to the stem until the tree reaches middle 

 life or later. It is not infrequent, however, to see a clean 

 stem for sixty to eighty or more feet. On old trees, in dense 

 stands, the crown is short and somewhat rounded. Its live 

 bark is tough, stringy, and fibrous, and is sometimes woven 

 into coarse fabrics and made into baskets by the Indians. 

 It lives to a great age. It is a fairly rapid grower in early 

 life, but trees from twenty -four to forty inches in diameter 

 run from two hundred to five hundred and ten years of 

 age. 



Its natural range in the United States it reaches along 

 the Pacific Slope to Alaska is from the Canadian line 



