ga 
ARBOR 
is awarded for disobedience to such rules and 
orders as are issued by the courts themselves. 
When a submission is made to two or more 
persons as arbiters, it is usual to stipulate, that 
another person shall be called in as umpire, (¢m- 
perator or impar; in Scotland, oversman), in case 
of disagreement ; to whose sole judgment the dis- 
pute is then to be referred. 
The decisions of arbiters have been at all times 
so favourably viewed that among most nations 
they are not reducible on the ground of injustice 
| or iniquity, but only on the ground of corruption. 
By the old practice of Scotland, indeed, decrees- 
arbitral were reducible on the head of iniquity 
in the judge, or of enormous lesion of the party ; 
but by act of regulations 1695, c. 25, it was de- 
clared, that no decree-arbitral, proceeding on 
written submission, should for the future be re- 
ducible on any ground but those of corruption, 
bribery, or falsehood. Of course all decrees in 
which the arbiters have exceeded the powers com- 
mitted to them, are reducible; they may also be 
challenged when the arbiter has not fully heard 
parties, or where he has taken proof in absence of 
one of the parties, or pronounced a decision pal- 
pably at variance with the principles of justice. 
Arbiters are but private persons, in whom the 
| law has vested no jurisdiction; and, hence, they 
cannot compel witnesses to appear and depose 
before them, or possessors of writings to exhibit 
them. But this defect is supplied in Scotland by 
the court of session, who, at the suit either of the 
arbiters, or of either of the parties, are in use to 
grant warrants in course for the citing of wit- 
nesses, or for the exhibition of writings before 
the arbiters. 
As arbiters derive their whole powers merely 
| from the consent of the parties submitting, their 
award or decree, if it be not given in strict con- 
formity to those powers, is null, not being founded 
upon any proper authority. Hence arbiters can- 
not inflict, on the parties submitting, any penalty 
or fine higher than that which they themselves 
have agreed to in the submission. Hence also, 
if the parties submitting limit the power of the 
arbiters to any fixed day, decree cannot be pro- 
nounced after that day; though it may, zn ipso 
termino, 1. e. on the very day betwixt and which 
the arbiters had powers given them to decide. 
Where arbiters take upon them expressly to de- 
termine points not referred to them, the decree- 
arbitral may be declared null, upon an action of 
reduction, as being pronounced wltra vires com- 
promissi. ; 
ARBOR VITA,—botanically Thuja or Thuya. 
A genus of ornamental evergreen trees, of the 
cone-bearing tribe. It takes its popular name 
from the circumstance of its tree being very em- 
inently evergreen, and not from any allusion to 
the tree of life in the Garden of Eden; and it 
takes its botanical name, which means sacrificial, 
from the circumstance of the timber of some of 
its species giving out an agreeable odour when 
VITA. 
burnt, and having been used in the ancient rites 
of sacrifice. Nine or ten species of it are known 
-to botanists; but only six have been introduced 
to Great Britain; and only two of these six, to- 
gether with one well-defined variety, are in gen- 
eral British cultivation. 
The American or common species, Thuja oeci- 
dentalis, is a native of North America, and was 
introduced to Great Britain in 1596. It was, for 
upwards of 150 years, the only species known in 
this country; and though now less esteemed for | 
ornamental purposes than some other species, it 
still continues pre-eminent for purposes of utility. 
It usually attains a height of about 25 feet, and | 
occasionally rises to the height of 30 or even 40 
feet ; but is generally grown in this country only 
as a tall shrub or miniature tree. In its youthful 
or shrub-like condition, it is decidedly ornamen- 
tal; and though of sombre and almost lugubrious 
character—suited more to the cemetery than to | 
the pleasure-ground—it very effectively contrasts — 
with plants of lighter outline, gayer aspect, and 
less unusual foliage ; and, in consequence of hav- 
ing a full appearance, and yet flowering in feather- 
like tuftlets, it gives great richness to promiscu- 
ous or heterogeneous masses of shrubs. Its leaves 
are imbricated, and, as compared to those of most 
of other cone-bearing trees, seem broad, elabo- 
rate, and arabesque; in an advanced state of the 
tree, they become much thinned or scattered ; 
and, when bruised, they emit a strong and, to 
many persons, very disagreeable smell. InCanada, | 
it grows as a forest-tree, and is universally re- 
garded as furnishing more durable timber than 
any other tree. Its trunk is sawn into planks 
and boards for the building of houses and boats; 
its branches are used for posts and fences; its 
smaller branches and its spray are used for mak- 
ing besoms; and its leaves are employed as the | 
chief ingredient of a salve which the natives apply | 
for the cure of rheumatism. Fences made of it | 
last three or four times longer than those con- 
structed of any other wood. In England, its 
timber has been used principally by the cabinet- 
maker and the turner. Michaux asserts this 
timber to be exceedingly durable; and Hanbury | 
—speaking more, however, from theory than from | 
experience—says, “the wood is reddish, firm,and | 
resinous, so that we may easily judge of its valne | 
for curiosities of most sorts, when worked up by 
the respective artificers of turnery, joiners, cab- 
inet-makers, &c.” The finest trees are always 
raised from seed; but very good trees may be 
raised from either layers or cuttings. The seeds, 
used for raising plants, ought to be sown as soon 
as ripe or early in spring, in pots filled with a 
mixture of peat and loam. The plants grow best 
in moist sandy loams, yet will become decidedly | 
fine trees either in dry sandy soils or in damp 
clayey lands. The young plants will be most ad- | 
vantageously removed from the pots to the open 
ground in October, yet may be removed in any of 
the months of winter or spring; and they ought 
