242 TREES IN WINTER 



ARBOR VITAE 

 White Cedar, Cedar. 



Thuja occidentalis L. 



HABIT — Commonly 25-50 ft. in height with trunk diameter of 1-.' 

 ft., in northern Maine occasionally reaching, a height of 70 ft. anc: 

 a trunk diameter of 3-5 ft.; trunk more or less lobed and buttressed 

 at base, often inclined and twisted, frequently dividing into two or 

 more stout, erect stems; branches short, horizontal, lower branches often 

 strongly declined, branchlets numerous, forming a dense, conical head 

 clothed with foliage to near the base. 



BARK — Ashy gray to light reddish-brown, separating off in long, 

 narrow, flat, shreddy strips, often more or less spirally twisted. 



TVv'IGS — Generally more than 2 mm. wide, decidedly flattened, 

 arranged in fan-shaped clusters, placed vertically or in planes at 

 various angles, often mistaken for the true leaves which are minute 

 and completely cover the last season's growth, dark A^ellowish-green, 

 paler on the underside, with the death of the leaves in the second season 

 becoming pale cinnamon brown and later shining reddish-brown, round 

 in section, swollen at place of attachment to main branch, and marked 

 by scars of deciduous branchlets. Photograph of twig is about % nat- 

 ural size. 



LEAVES — Minute, 3-6 mm. long, scale-like, appressed and closely 

 overlapping, opposite in 4. ranks; on the flattened spray those in the 

 side pairs keeled, those in the other pair flat, ovate, each with a single 

 raised glandular spot especially conspicuous on leaves of leading 

 shoots; with a characteristic camphor-like aromatic odor when crushed, 



FRl'IT — Small, oblong cones, about i^ inch long, pale reddish-brown, 

 opening to the base when mature, maturing the first season and persis- 

 tent through the winter. SCALES — 6-12, thin, oblong, dry with margins 

 mostly entire. 



COMPARISONS — The Arbor Vitae is often called White Cedar and 

 resembles the Coast White Cedar, which likewise is often known as 

 White Cedar, in its bark, its habit of growth and its flattened fan- 

 shaped spray. The twigs of the Arbor Vitae are much more flattened 

 and larger and the clusters of twigs more decidedly fan-shaped; the 

 leaves are also larger and of a yellowish-green color. The cones of 

 the two species are decidedly different, those of the Arbor Vitae being 

 oblong with thin scales opening to the base of the cone, those of the 

 Coast White Cedar being spherical with thickened shield-shaped scales, 

 perched on stalks attatched to the center of the cone. 



DISTRIBITTIOjV— Low, swampy lands, rocky borders of rivers and 

 ponds. Often cultivated as single ornamental trees and in hedges. 

 Southern Labrador to Nova Scotia; west to Manitoba; south along the 

 mountains to North Carolina and East Tennessee; west to Minnesota, 



IN NEW ENGLAND — Maine — throughout the state; most abundant 

 in the central and northern portions, forming extensive areas known 

 as "Cedar Swamps"; sometimes bordering a growth of Black Spruce 

 at a lower level; New Hampshire — mostly confined to the upper part 

 of Coos county, disappearing at the White river narrows near Han- 

 over; seen only in isolated localities south of the White Mountains; 

 Vermont — common in swamps at levels below 1.000 ft.; Massachusetts — 

 Berkshire county; occasional in the northern sections of the Connecti- 

 cut river valley; Connecticut — rare, Canaan, on a limestone ridge and in 

 a nearby swamp, Salisbury, rocky hillsides and at another locality in a 

 deep swamp; apparently native at these three localities; escaped from 

 cultivation to fields and roadsides at Norwich, East Hartford, Killingly 

 and Windsor; Rhode Island — not reported. 



AVOOn — Light, soft, brittle, very coarse-grained, durable, fragrant, 

 pale yellowish-brown, largely used in Canada and the northern states, 

 for fence posts, rails, railroad ties, spools and shingles. 



