268 TREES 



Government and state protection has made sure the 

 safeguarding for coming generations of some groves of 

 redwoods, containing trees whose size and age rival those 

 of the most ancient Big Trees. But the fact that the 

 redwood, restricted on the map to such a Hmited territory, 

 is the most important timber tree on the Coast, is a blot 

 upon our vaunted Democracy, which has allowed the 

 cunning of a few small minds to defeat the best interests 

 of the whole people and rob them of forest treasure which 

 might yield its benefits continuously, if properly managed. 

 Government purchase of all sequoia-bearing land, followed 

 by rational methods of harvesting the mature lumber and 

 conserving the young growth, is the ideal solution of the 

 problem. Such a plan would assure the saving of the 

 monumental giants. 



THE ARBOR-VITAES 



Minute, scale-like leaves, four-ranked, closely over- 

 lapping, so as to conceal the wiry twig, mark the genus 

 thuya, which is represented in America by two species of 

 slender, pyramidal evergreen trees, whose intricately 

 branched limbs terminate in a flat, open spray {see illus- 

 tration, page 262). "Tree of Life" is the English transla- 

 tion, but the Latin name everywhere is heard. 



Eastern Arbor-vitae 



Thuya occidentalis, Linn. 



The Eastern arbor-vitae, called also the white cedar, 

 is found in impenetrable pure forest growth, from Nova 



