RED CEDAR. 
127 
sharp scales encased in one another. It diffuses a resinous, aromatic odor 
when bruised : dried and reduced to powder it has the same effect as the 
common Juniper, of increasing the efficacy of blister-plasters. The male 
and female flowers are small, not conspicuous, and borne separately on the 
same or on different stocks. The seeds are small, ovate berries, bluish 
when ripe, and covered with a white .exudation. They arrive at maturity 
about the beginning of fall, and if sown immediately the greater part of 
them shodt the following spring, but not before the second year if they 
are kept several months. The quantity of gin made from them in the 
United States is small compared with what is imported from Holland. 
The name of Red Cedar is descriptive only of the perfect wood, which 
is of a bright tint ; the sap is perfectly white. 
The post striking peculiarity in the vegetation of the Red Cedar is that 
its branches, which are numerous and close, spring near the earth and 
spread horizontally, and that the lower limbs are during many years as 
long as the body of the tree. The trunk decreases so rapidly that the 
largest stocks rarely afford timber for ship-building of more than 11 feet 
in length. Its diameter is very much diminished by deep, oblong crevices 
in every part of the trunk, which are occasioned by the large branches 
persisting after they are dead. My own observations and experiments 
lead me to believe that the growth of the tree might be thickened, and 
this deformity prevented, by cutting the limbs even with the trunk for 
two-thirds of its height. 
The wood is odorous, compact, fine-grained and very light, though 
heavier and stronger than that of the White Cedar and Cypress. To these 
qualities it unites the still more precious character of durability, and is 
consequently highly esteemed for such objects as require it in an eminent 
degree. But as it is procured with difficulty, and is every day becoming 
scarcer, it is reserved exclusively for the most important uses. The repro- 
duction is too trifling to be mentioned in comparison with the consumption 
in the ports of the United States at large, and particularly at New York, 
Philadelphia and Baltimore. In the. upper part of the frame of vessels, 
it is joined with the Live Oak to compensate its excessive weight, and this 
usage, more than any other, has wasted the species. Recourse is now had 
to the coast of East Elorida between the St. Mary and the St. John, which 
will soon be exhausted in its turn. The nearer the Red Cedar grows to 
the sea, and the further southward, the better is its wood. Next to ship- 
building, it is most commonly used for posts, which are highly esteemed 
and are reserved for enclosing court-yards and gardens in the cities and 
their vicinity. The barriers of the side-walks in the streets of Philadel- 
phia are made of this wood : they are 10 or 11 feet long and 8 inches in 
diameter, and are sold at 80 cents each, while those of White Cedar cost 
only 16 or 17 cents. It is eminently fitted for subterranean water-pipes, 
