21-96 



ARBORETUM AND FRUTICETUM. 



PART III. 



ing, and others tall and fastigiate ; some bear only male blossoms, and 

 others only female ones. The foliage, in some, is of a very light hue ; in 

 others, it is glaucous ; and in some a very dark green. The fruit, also, varies 

 considerably in size ; but, perhaps, the most striking variety is one in which 

 the branches are decidedly pendent. Miller mentions a variety which has 

 leaves like a cypress. 



2357 



Description, $c. The red cedar, in its native country, is a tree from 

 40 ft. to 45 ft. high, with a trunk from 1 ft. to 1 ft. 6 in. in diameter. Its 

 branches, which are numerous and close, spring near the earth, and spread 

 horizontally; and the lower limbs are, during many years, as long as the 

 body of the tree. The trunk decreases so rapidly, in diameter as it 

 ascends, that the largest specimens rarely afford timber for ship-building 

 more than 1 1 ft. in length. The diameter of the wood is also very much di- 

 minished by deep oblong furrows in every part of the trunk, occasioned by the 

 large branches persisting after they are dead. (Michx.) The wood is fragrant, 

 compact, fine-grained, and light ; though heavier and stronger than that of 

 either the white cedar or the deciduous cypress. The bark is thin and scaling 

 off. The leaves are fastened at the base by their inner side, in the new shoots, 

 imbricated in four rows, giving them the appearance of being quadrangular ; 

 the year following these spread from the branch at an acute angle, and appear 

 to be disposed in six rows, or longitudinal phalanxes. The male and female 

 flowers are small, not conspicuous, and borne separately on the same or on 

 different trees. The berry is dark blue, and covered with a whitish resinous 

 meal. The rate of growth, in the climate of London, is 10 ft. or 12 ft. in ten 

 years ; and the duration of the tree is upwards of a century. The largest 

 specimens that we have seen are at Whitton, where there is one 60 ft. high, 

 with a trunk 2 ft. in diameter ; at Pain's Hill, where there is one 40 ft. 

 high, with a trunk 2ft. in diameter, and the diameter of the head 40ft.; and 

 at Syon, where there is the tree figured in our last Volume. 



Geography and History. According to the elder Michaux, Cedar Island, in 

 Lake Champlain, nearly opposite to Burlington, in lat. 44 25', is the most 

 northern boundary of the red cedar. Eastward, it is found near Wiscasset, a 



