FOREST TREES. 219 
mate of the Northern States, or are imperfectly tested. 
Three or four species are found within the limits of 
the United States. 
Juniperus Virginiana—Red Cedar. 
Leaves, four-ranked, very numerous; on old twigs 
very small and scale-like, closely imbricated; on 
thrifty shoots, awl-shaped and somewhat spreading, 
in pairs or threes. 
The Red Cedar is known throughout the United 
States east of the Rocky Mountains, but is most 
common near the sea coast. According to Michaux, 
the further south and nearer the sea it grows, the 
better is its wood. Its ordinary height does not 
exceed thirty or forty feet, with a diameter of ten or 
twelve inches, which decreases rapidly. The wood is 
highly valued for its great durability; when it can 
be procured it is employed in ship building, and when 
used for posts, it will last forty or fifty years. It is 
much used in the manufacture of lead pencils. The 
tree varies greatly in form. Ordinarily it is more or 
less spreading, and the lower branches of a tree, ten 
feet high, are often as long as the trunk. Others are 
more conical, and along the Hudson river it grows in 
a form as fastigiate as that of the Lombardy Poplar. 
Some writers have recommended the Red Cedar as 
the best tree for screens and shelter belts. As far as 
my experience qualifies me to judge, it is inferior for 
that purpose to almost any other evergreen in common 
cultivation. It is of slower growth than even the 
Arbor Vite and Hemlock; and when grown in the 
