CONIFERS, OR CONE-BEARING TREES. 245 



flowers on different branches, the sterile catkins elliptical ovoid, 

 and the fertile ones ovoid and solitary. Cones small, ovoid, 

 with four to six rather thin scales adhering at the base, and 

 covering two flattish seeds, winged all round the margins. 

 Leaves small and scale-like, in four rows on the flat thin 

 branchlets. Only two species in this country. 



Thnya gigautra, Nutt. Giant Arbor- Vitae. Leaves acuminate, 

 incurved ovate, somewhat quadrately and closely imbricated, 

 and obscurely glandular ; of a bright green, sometimes of 

 a glaucous-green color. Branches and branchlets erect, the lat- 

 ter flattened and very graceful in form. Cones more or less 

 clustered, and slightly longer than those of the next species. 

 A very large and graceful tree, sometimes two hundred feet 

 high, with a stem ten to twelve feet in diameter. Wood white, 

 soft, and easily worked, said to be very durable. In the Coast 

 Ranges and Cascade Mountains of Oregon, and in Northern 

 California. Like most of the evergreens from the Northwest 

 Coast, this tree is often injured by the heat of summer in our 

 Atlantic States, and browned, or the shoots entirely killed in 

 winter. 



T. occidentalis, L. White Cedar, Arbor- Vitae. Leaves quite 

 small, rhombic, ovate, imbricated in four rows. Branches 

 numerous, slender, upright, or widely spreading. Cones small, 

 oblong-ovoid, with thin dry spreading, pointless scales. Seed 

 with a broad wing all round. A common and well known tree 

 in low, moist soils throughout Eastern North America. Wood 

 light-colored, compact and durable. Usually a small tree, 

 growing to a hight of thirty to fifty feet. A tree largely 

 employed for screens and ornamental hedges, as it thrives in a 

 great variety of soils. There are many varieties in cultivation, 

 some exceedingly dwarf, others tall and quite slender. The so- 

 called Siberian Arbor- Vitas of nurseries, is only a compact grow- 

 ing variety of this species. There are several golden-leaved 

 arid silver-tipped varieties, one of the latter originated in my 

 grounds some ten years since, and is now in the collection 

 of Parsons and Sons, Flushing, N. Y. I gave it the name 

 of " Columbia," as there is another silver- tipped variety 

 known as "Victoria." But these garden varieties are more 

 interesting as ornamental trees than for practical utility. 

 BIOTA, Don. Oriental or Eastern Arbor- Vita. 



Flowers similar to those of the Thuya, but leaves small, 

 ovate, scale-like, rough and hard to the feel, imbricated in four 



