558 EVERGREEN TREES AND SHRUBS. 
markably fragrant, and of a dark red color; making it pleasing to 
the senses as well as valuable in the arts. It grows from thirty to 
forty feet in height, and assumes a variety of forms in different soils 
and parts of the country. On the banks of the Hudson River, and 
streams farther north, it is usually a compactly conical tree; at the 
west and south, it grows in more irregularly-pyramidal forms, with 
much freer and more open branching. “ The red cedar varies ex¬ 
ceedingly from seed; some are low and spreading, and others tall 
and fastigiate; some bearing male blossoms, and others female 
ones. The foliage in some is of a very light hue; in others it is 
glaucus, and in some a very dark green.”—(Loudon.) 
The red cedar just falls short of being one of the most beautiful 
of evergreens. When grown in rich, deep soil, it assumes an irreg¬ 
ular and spirited outline. While young, in such soils, the length 
of its side branches, which take a horizontal direction near the 
ground, give it the appearance of a free-growing evergreen shrub, 
of a less formal character than any other evergreen we have. In 
gracefulness of growth it is only excelled by the hemlock, and it 
exceeds that tree in the diversity of its forms. The foliage in 
spring and summer varies greatly in color on different trees, from a 
bluish to a yellowish green. On old trees the sunny side often 
exhibits great warmth of tone, and a soft blending of strong lights 
and shades on the rounded details of its contour. But in winter, 
though called an evergreen, its foliage turns to a dull brown that is 
rarely pleasing; and occasionally it is tinged with this color in 
excessively hot, dry weather. This winter color, however, is thrown 
off with the returning warmth of spring, and the foliage resumes 
its natural green some weeks before the new growth shows itself. 
The elder Michaux made a mistake, in which Downing followed 
him, of supposing that the red cedar flourished best near tide-water; 
and that in the western States “ it is confined to spots where the 
calcareous rock shows itself naked, or is so thinly covered with 
mould as to forbid the vegetation of other trees” (Michaux). Cer¬ 
tainly it seems greatly at home in a soil not far removed from 
limestone rock, but it is most luxuriant in deep, alluvial soils above 
such rock. On the islands in the west end of Lake Erie, on the 
shores of Sandusky Bay, and on the banks of the Maumee river, 
