EVERGREEN ORNAMENTAL TREES. 233 



The Red Cedar Tree. Junij)enis. 



JSat. Ord. Coniferse. Lin. Sijst. Dioecia, Monadelphia. 



The Red Cedar is a very common tree, indigenous to this 

 country, and growing in considerable abundance from Maine 

 to Florida ; but thriving with the greatest luxuriance in the 

 sea-board states. When fully grown, the Red Cedar is about 

 40 feet in height, and little more than a foot in diameter. 

 The leaves are very small, composed of minute scales, and 

 lie pretty close to the branches. Small blue berries, borne 

 thickly upon the branches of the female trees in autumn 

 and winter, contain the seeds. These are covered with a 

 whitish exudation, and are sometimes used, like those of the 

 foreign juniper, in the manufacture of gin. 



The Red Cedar has less to recommend it to the eye than 

 most of the evergreens, which we have already described. 

 The colour of the foliage is dull and dingy at many seasons, 

 and the form of the young tree is too compactly conical to 

 please generally. When old, however, we have seen it 

 throw off this formality, and become an interesting and in- 

 deed a picturesque tree. Then its branches shooting out in a 

 horizontal direction, clad with looser and more pendant foliage, 

 give the whole tree quite another character. The twisted 

 stems, too, when they become aged, have a singular, dried- 

 looking, whitish bark, which is quite unique and peculiar. 

 We have seen a very fine natural avenue of Red Cedars near 

 Fishkill landing, in Dutchess Co. composed of two rows of 

 noble trees 35 or 40 feet high, which is a delightful walk in 

 winter and early spring. This has given the name of Cedar 

 Grove to the country seat in question, where the Red Cedar 

 grows spontaneously upon a slate subsoil, with great luxuri- 



30 



