220 



THE CULTIVATED EVERGREENS 



5. LIBOCEDRUS, Endl. INCENSE-CEDAR 



Evergreen trees with scaly bark and spreading or erect branches; branch- 

 lets flattened, rarely quadrangular, frond-like in arrangement: leaves de- 

 cussate, scale-like, with decurrent base, with or without glands: flowers 



monoecious or rarely dioecious, ter- 

 minal, similar to those of Thuja; 

 the staminate ones with 12-16 decus- 

 sate stamens: cones oblong to ovate, 

 with 4, rarely 6, woody scales, the 

 lower pair sterile, short and reflexed, 

 the second one much larger and 

 fertile, each scale bearing 2 long- 

 winged seeds, the third pair, if pres- 

 ent, connate into a woody septum, 

 cotyledons 2. (Name derived from 

 Greek libas, drop, tear, and Cedrus; 

 alluding to the resinous character 

 of the tree.) — Eight species in 

 western North America, South Amer- 

 ica, New Zealand, New Caledonia, 

 New Guinea, Formosa, and south- 

 western China. 



L. deciirrens, Torr. {L. Craigana, 

 Low. Thuya Craigana, Murr. T. 

 gigantea, Carr., not Nutt.). Cali- 

 fornia I. (White Cedar). Fig. 44 

 and Plate XVII. Tree to 100, oc- 

 casionally to 200 feet tall, with erect 

 or spreading short branches, forming 

 a rather narrow pyramidal head, 

 irregular in old age; bark bright 

 cinnamon-red, broken into irregular 

 ridges covered with closely appressed 

 scales; branchlets much flattened, 

 bright green on both sides: leaves 

 oblong-ovate, adnate, with long decurrent base, free at the apex and 

 acuminate, glandular on the back: cones pendulous, oblong, ^-1 inch 

 long, light reddish-brown; scales mucronate below the apex, a third connate 



inch long. 



Introduced to Europe 



in sheltered positions. A 



. Libocedrus 

 decurrens. 



Oregon to western Nevada and Lower California, 

 in 1853. Hardy as far north as Massachusetts 



