100 WOODY PLANTS OF MASSACHUSETTS. 
turn blue, and finally brown. They are mature in autumn, 
when they cast their minute, oblong, flattened seeds; but they 
usually remain on the tree for some time after. 
The wood is white, or, when seasoned, of a faint rose color, 
light, soft, fine-grained, and very durable. It has a strong and 
permanent aromatic odor; and it resists for a long time the 
alternations of moisture and dryness. It is hence particularly 
suitable for fencing, for which purpose it is much used in the 
neighborhood of the cedar swamps. It 1s also employed in 
making shingles, and wooden vessels. or its lightness and 
durability, it is chosen for certain parts of whale-boats, for the 
streaks, ceiling or lining, plat-form, and stern-sheets; the frame- 
work being made of oak. 
In its native swamps, the white cedars usually come up so 
thickly as almost to cover the ground, and when grown to the 
height of eight or ten feet, they form a perfectly impenetrable 
thicket. In this state they nearly cease to grow, and remain 
apparently stationary, till the hardier stocks outgrow, over- 
shadow, and choke the weaker ones. ‘These latter gradually 
die, making room for the slow growth of the survivors. If, at 
this stage, four out of five, or even nine out of ten, were thinned 
out, the remainder would be able to grow to an amount fully 
equal to the whole. This should always be done. The thin- 
nings are an excellent material for fences. On the grounds of 
the late Joseph Anthony, of New Bedford, was a fence made 
of small white cedars, of a fashion worth imitating. A row of 
cedar stakes is set, at suitable distances, leaning all one way, 
at an angle of 45°. In contact with them another row is set, 
with the same inclination in an opposite direction. "Where the 
contiguous stakes cross each other, they are fastened together 
with some pliant twig, like the young shoots of blue-fruited dog- 
wood, (Viburnum nudum). Thus is formed a sufficient and 
ornamental fence, of great durability. 
The white cedar has so many excellent qualities, that, in an 
industrious and manufacturing community, it can never cease 
to be valuable. It is one of those trees, therefore, which ought 
to be cultivated in great numbers, to supply the wants of pos- 
terity. Fortunately, it is one which can be cultivated with less 
