? CONIFERS, OE COKE-BEAEIKG TREES. 243 



FOREIGisT SPECIES AISTD VARIETIES. 



Of these there are quite a large number, but very few if any 

 of them are hardy in our Northern States, but all can be grown 

 in the Southern, as well as in the milder regions of California. 

 One of the most interesting species is the Weeping or Funereal 

 Cypress of Northern China, and described in Robert Fortune's 

 work on the tea countries of China. He says that it grows to a 

 hight of sixty feet, with weeping branches, resembling in this 

 character the common Weeping Willow. Another curious and 

 interesting species, the C. torulosa, Don., comes from India, 

 where it grows to a hight of a hundred and fifty feet, with 

 twisted branchlets, somewhat like ringlets. The cones are 

 quite large, and of the size and form shown in fig. 51. This 

 species is held in religious veneration by the natives, and the 

 twigs and fruit are considered a valuable medicine. There are 

 many other species and varieties described by botanists, but 

 ^ are of no especial interest to the practical forester. 



LiBOCEDRUS^ Endlicher. — California White Cedar. 



A small genus of only four species, two in South America, 

 one in New Zealand, and one on our Western Coast. It is 

 closely related to the common Arbor Vitse {Thuya). Cones not 

 reflexed, solitary, terminal, and composed of four to six woody 

 coriaceous, concave scales, terminating in a small incurved 

 spine. Seed unequally winged, usually two under each scale. 

 Leaves imbricated in four rows. 



Libocedrus decurrens, Torr. — White Cedar of California,— Leaves 

 very bright green, awl-shaped, sharply acute. Cones three- 

 quarters of an inch to an inch long, scaly-bracted at base, ob- 

 long, and the lower scales very short. Branches spreading and 

 incurved at the extremities. A very large tree, one hundred to 

 one hundred and fifty feet high, by four to seven in diameter. 

 In general appearance, this tree resembles an Arbor- Yitse, in 

 fact has been placed among the Thuya's in many of our modern 

 botanical works. The wood is soft and light-colored, not dura- 

 ble when exposed to the weather. In the Coast Ranges of Ore- 

 gon, and southward to San Diego, California. The cultivation 

 of this species in the Atlantic States has not been very satis- 

 factory, but occasional specimens has lived and made a moder- 

 ate growth without protection, but I cannot recommend it for 

 planting out any where north of Washington. 



The foreign species are even more tender than the native one, 



