52 SYLVA FLORIFERA. 



Plants," which was published in 1597, that it 

 was then growing very plentifully in his garden 

 at Holborn, where it flowered about May, but 

 it had not then ripened seed, 



" The Thuja from China's fruitful lands," 



being of a brighter green and thicker of ver- 

 dure, has nearly superseded the arbor vitse of 

 Canada in our plantations. The seeds of the 

 Chinese arbor vitae were first sent by some of 

 the missionaries to Paris, where the quantities 

 of these evergreens show how successfully 

 they have been cultivated ; but, we fear, these 

 holy fathers have not been equally fortunate 

 in propagating the seeds of Christianity in 

 the land that gave them the tree of life. 



Miller cultivated this species of the arbor 

 vitse, at Chelsea, in 1752; and it has now, 

 from the hardiness of its nature, and the ease 

 of its cultivation, spread itself, like the roses 

 of China, over every part of our island. 

 Surely this should induce us to naturalize, 

 or, at all events, to make the trial of culti- 

 vating the tea-tree, which would, ere this, 

 have covered our fields with its reviving 

 leaves, had we bestowed half the attention on 

 it that has been lavished on the asters and 

 chrysanthemums of that country. 



The arbor vitae recommends itself to a place 



