30 BULLETIN 680^ U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTUEE. 



ually swing upward more and more toward the narrow-pointed top. 

 Short; flat, drooping sprays of foliage terminate the branches. A 

 notable feature of the branches is that they shed numerous short 

 side twigs, which die in about their second or third year as the main 

 divisions of the branch enlarge. (This is true also of other cedars, 

 particularly Thujas.) The form and habit of the adult and juvenile 

 leaves and of the cones have already been defined in detail under the 

 ''Generic Characteristics of Incense Cedars." 



The flowers of incense cedar open in midwinter or very earij 

 spring (PL IX, h). Both the male and female flowers are each borne 

 on the ends of separate year-old twigs, either of the same tree and 

 branch or of different trees. The cones (PI. IX, a) are ripe by the 

 middle or latter part of August and usually begin to shed their 

 yellowish brown, large-winged seeds (PL IX, c) late in September, 

 most of the seed falling by the end of October. When the cones are 

 dry and fully open they are of a reddish brown color and the two 

 large outer cone scales are spread wide apart. Most of the cones 

 fall from the trees during the succeeding winter, but some always 

 adhere to the branches untfl. the following spring or summer. The 

 seeds contain glands with clear red, pungently odorous resin. Seed- 

 leaves, two in number, or occasionally three, are usually blunt or 

 only slightly pointed, and about 1| inches in length by almost one- 

 eighth of an inch in width (PL X, a). The succeeding primary leaves 

 are sharp-pointed and stand out from the stem (PL X, h). Within one 

 or two seasons' growth the primary leaves are followed by the adult 

 form of foliage. 



The wood of incense cedar is sometimes rather wide-ringed, but 

 usually it is narrow-ringed and very straight-grained, the heartwood 

 varying in color from a pale or dull yeUow-brown to a light brown 

 tinged with red, the sapwood being a creamy white. It is soft, 

 light, a cubic foot of seasoned wood weighing about 25 pounds, 

 and very durable under all kinds of exposure. Its great durability 

 renders it extremely valuable for use in the water or in the gi'ound, 

 where it may remain sound for from 25 to 30 years or more. Large 

 trunks and, to a much less extent, smaU or medium-sized ones, are 

 often riddled by a ''dry-rot fungus," as if b}^ the galleries of a wood- 

 boring insect. This injury, however, is now known to result from the 

 attack of a fungus called Polyporus amarus. They necessarily weaken 

 the trunk logs and render much of the wood useless for lumber, but the 

 durability of unattacked portions of the wood is in no way impaired. 

 Trunks not excessively perforated are frequently used for telephone 

 poles, especiaUy in the Pacific slope range of the tree, where, with the 

 exception of redwood and bigtree timber, it is the only lasting wood 

 obtainable for this purpose. In general appearance and texture the 

 wood of incense cedar is quite similar to that of the western red 



