AMERICAN ARBOR VITÆ. 
129 
My father mentions the shores of Lake St. John, in Canada, as its northern 
limit, beyond -which he saw no trace of it in traveling in that direction 
more than 300 miles. It abounds in favorable situations between the 
parallels of 48° 50' and 45° ; further south it becomes fare, and solitary 
stocks only are seen on the sides of torrents and on the banks of certain 
rivers, as on the Hudson amid the highlands, and near the rapids of the 
Potomac, in Virginia. Goat Island, round which the Niagara divides itself 
to form the stupendous cataract which is one of the most wonderful spec- 
tacles of nature, is seen from the banks of the river to be bordered with 
the Arbor Vitæ. 
In Canada and the northern part of the United States this tree is called 
White Cedar , but in the District of Maine it is frequently designated by 
the name of Arbor Vitæ , which I have preferred, though less common, 
because the other is appropriated to the Cupressus iliyoides. 
The Arbor Vitæ is 45 or 50 feet in height and sometimes more than 10 
feet in circumference ; usually, however, it is not more than 10 or 15 inches 
in diameter at 5 feet from the ground. From the number and the dis- 
tinctness of the concentric circles in stocks of this size, its growth must 
be extremely slow : I have counted 117 in a log 13 inches and 5 lines in 
diameter. They are more compressed near the centre, as in the Cypress 
and White Cedar, which is contrary to the arrangement observed in the 
Oaks, the Beeches and the Maples. 
The foliage is evergreen, numerously ramified, and flattened or spread. 
The leaves are small, opposite, imbricated scales ; when bruised they diffuse 
a strong aromatic odor. The sexes are separate upon the same tree. The 
male flowers are in the form of small cones : to the female blossom succeeds 
a yellowish fruit about 4 lines in length composed of oblong scales, which 
open through their whole length for the escape of several minute seeds 
surmounted by a short wing. 
.In Lower Canada, New Brunswick, Vermont, and the District of Maine, 
the Arbor Vitæ is the most multiplied of the resinous trees, after the Black 
and the Hemlock Spruces. A cool soil seems to be indispensable to its 
growth. It is never seen on the uplands among the Beeches, the Birches, 
etc., but is found on the rocky edges of the innumerable rivulets and small 
lakes which are scattered over these countries, and occupies in great part, 
or exclusively,- swamps from 50 to 100 acres in extent, some of which are 
accessible only in the winter, when they are frozen and covered with 
several feet of snow. It abounds exactly in proportion to the degree of 
humidity, and in the driest marshes it is mingled with the Black Spruce, 
the Hemlock Spruce, the Yellow Birch, the Black Ash ; and a few stocks 
of the White Pine, In all of them, the surface is covered with a bed of 
Sphagnum so thick and surcharged with moisture that the foot sinks half- 
leg deep while the water rises under its pressure. 
Vol. III.— 18 
