244 



PEACTICAL FOEESTEY. 



but are worth cultivating in the South. The L. CJiilensis, or 

 Chilian Arbor- Yitae, is a handsome tree from the Ancles of 

 Chili, where it grows to a hight of sixty to eighty feet. L, Doni- 

 ana, the New Zealand Arbor- Vitae resembles our common native 

 species of the Eastern States, but is tender even in the milder 

 climate of England. 



L. tetragona, the Alerze of the Chilian's, is a native of Chih 

 and Patagonia, and is the most valuable timber tree of the 

 country, and although introduced into England in 1849, by 

 James Yeitch and Sons, they remark in their " Manual of Coni- 

 ferae," 1881, that this species " has up to the present time failed 

 in England, and has now become quite scarce." 



THUYA^ Tournefort. — Arbor- Vitce, 



A genus of evergreen trees and shrubs that may be appro- 

 priately termed the Shuttlecock of botanists, at least among 

 those of modern times. Even the spelling of the name has 

 been twisted and changed in almost every conceivable way 

 possible, without wholly destroying the word. Drs. Gray and 

 Chapman, also Hoopes, Paxton, Gordon, and several other 

 equally as good botanical authorities, give it as Thuja, while 

 Yeitch and Sons, in their Manual of Coniferse, spell it TJmia, 

 Masters in his Monograph on the " Conifers of Japan," Watson 

 in Botany of California, and various other authors, spell it as 

 above or Thuya. Linnaeus in his Systema IsaturaB, 1767, and 

 other botanists of his day, and before it, spell the word with a 

 j instead of a y, and while I am satisfied that the weight of 

 authority would certainly establish the j as being the correct 

 orthography, still I prefer using the y, because it accords with 

 the proper pronunciation. But if our botanical authorities are 

 so much at variance in the name of the genus, we must expect 

 a still wider disagreement in regard to the classification or 

 arrangement of the species and varieties belonging to it, or in 

 closely allied genera. 



Masters places all the true j^.rbor-Yitae's or TJiuyas, the Bio- 

 tas and Retinisporas, under this one generic name of Thuya, 

 while the more common arrangement is to divide these into 

 three genera or gToups. I am incUned to think the latter is the 

 most convenient one, and that there are good and well defined 

 characteristics that will enable almost any careful observer to 

 separate the species, even if he has no great amount of scien- 

 tific intelligence to aid him in the work. The American species 

 belong to the first named genera or group, and have monoecious 



