EVERGREEN ORNAMENTAL TREES. 
269 
The only fault of this tree as an evergreen, is the 
comparatively dingy green hue of its foliage in winter 
But to compensate for this, it is remarkably fresh looking 
in its spring, summer, and autumn tints, comparing well at 
those seasons even with the bright verdure of deciduous 
trees. 
The Arbor Vitae is very abundant in New Brunswick, 
Vermont, and Maine. In New York, the shores of the 
Hudson, at Hampton landing, 70 miles above the city of 
New York, are lined on both sides with beautiful speci 
mens of this tree, many of them being perfect cones in 
outline ; and it is here much more symmetrical and perfect 
in its growth than we have seen it. Forty feet is about 
the maximum altitude of the Arbor Vitae, and the stem 
rarely measures more than ten or twelve inches in 
diameter. 
The wood is very light, soft, and fine-grained, but is 
reputed to be equally durable with the Red Cedar. It 
is consequently employed for various purposes in build- 
ing and fencing, where, in the northern districts, it 
grows in sufficient abundance, and of suitable size. 
The Chinese Arbor Vitae ( T orientalis) is a tree of 
much smaller and more feeble growth. It cannot, 
therefore, as an ornamental tree, be put in competition 
with our native species. Bnt it is a beautiful evergreen 
for the garden and shrubbery, where it finds a more 
suitable and sheltered site, being rather tender north of 
New York. 
The White Cedar ( Thuja, spheroidal), which belongs 
to the same g^nus as the Arbor Vitae, is a much loftiei 
* Cujjressus thuyoides of the old botanists. 
