LIBOCEDRUS DECURRENS 181 
of foliage, by its leaves as if splashed with thick 
patches of whitewash between its very distinct green 
upraised margins on the under-side of the leaf, calls 
for very little help from anyone to make it easily 
distinguishable. 
It is the one case, above all, among all Cypresses 
and Thuyas of which we may say with confidence 
that a sight will suffice, and that ever afterwards a 
remembrance and recognition of it should remain 
implanted in the eye and mind of the Conifer student. 
It hails from Japan, and though it was heard of and 
en évidence as far back as the eighteenth century, it 
does not seem to have come to stay until the middle 
of the next century ; and when it did, owing, it must 
be presumed, to some climatic conditions, it did not 
attain the height to which it grows in its native 
lands. It is said to show partiality for shade and 
moisture, and to grow better from cuttings than from 
seed. The wood is well spoken of. A full descrip- 
tion of its cones and leaves appears in the table, 
p- 292. 
LrsocepRus DECURRENS, or INCENSE CEDAR,— 
Numa the rites of strict religion knew, 
On every altar laid the incense due. 
Prior, 
It has not often fallen to my lot to play cicerone 
among trees, and then only more among the trees of 
my own homestead. On those infrequent occasions 
it is seldom that I have been questioned as to the 
origin of a name. One only exception there is to a 
normal quietude upon such subjects, and that is as 
to the derivation of the name Libocedrus. It was 
once asked whether the name had any occult con- 
nection with a Cedar that had taken a liberty, meaning 
thereby whether it was a freak or sport produced 
from that venerable tree they all knew so well by 
