Handbook of Trees of the JS[ortiieb]n' States and Canada. 



45 



The Red Cedar is usually not over 40 or 50 

 ft. in height, but e.xceptionally twice as tall, 

 with trunk from 2-3 ft. or more in diameter. 

 This is frequently buttressed and is vested in a 

 fibrous bark which exfoliates lengthwise in 

 strips. While young its top is generally nar- 

 row and spire-shaped, but Avith age its branches 

 ■elongate and lop outwards, forming finally a 

 wide irregular pj'ramidal or rounded top. It 

 is a tree of wide distribution and found alike 

 on dry gravelly slopes, rooky ridges and less 

 ■abundantly on rich bottom lands. Its pic- 

 turesque form is a feature of almost every 

 southern landscape from the sand-hills of the 

 coast to the valleys of the interior, and on the 

 blufi's of the New England coast sturdy in- 

 dividuals combat the winds close to the ocean's 

 spray. 



Its light fragrant wood of which a cubic 

 foot when absolutely dry weighs 30.70 lbs. is 

 ■of a purple-red color, very durable and pe- 

 culiarly valuable for making moth-p-roof cheats 

 for clothing, for wooden ware, lead pencil 

 coverings, fence posts, etc., and its berries and 

 foliage possess medicinal properties. i 



Lcares of two sorts, scale-like, opposite, closely 

 xippressed. one-sixteenth in. long; and forming o 

 slender 4-sided branchlet. generally acute or obtuse, 

 glandular-dotted and dark green, or on young or 

 vigorous shoots subulate, Mj-% in. long and lighter 

 green : buds naked. Flowers in very early spring, 

 terminal, dioecious : staminate with 10 or 12 

 stamens with rounded entire connectives and gen- 

 erally 4 pollen sacs : pistillate witli violet-colored 

 acute and spreading scales. Fruit subglobose. 

 ■about Vi in. in diameter, dark blue with glaucoiii-- 

 bloom, at maturity sweetisli resinous flesh and 

 usually 1 ny •! acute seeds ; cotyledons. - 



1. A. W., I, 25. 



2. For genus see p. 422. 



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