White Cedar Cedar
=Habitat and Range.=--In deep swamps and marshes, which it often fills
to the exclusion of other trees, mostly near the seacoast.
Cape Breton island and near Halifax, Nova Scotia, perhaps
introduced in both.
Maine,--reported from the southern part of York county; New
Hampshire,--limited to Rockingham county near the coast; Vermont,--no
station known; Massachusetts,--occasional in c
ntral and eastern
sections, very common in the southeast; Rhode Island,--common;
Connecticut,--occasional in peat swamps.
Southward, coast region to Florida and west to Mississippi.
=Habit.=--20-50 feet high and 1-2 feet in diameter at the ground,
reaching in the southern states an altitude of 90 and a diameter of 4
feet; trunk straight, tapering slowly, throwing out nearly horizontal,
slender branches, forming a narrow, conical head often of great elegance
and lightness; foliage light brownish-green; strong-scented; spray flat
in planes disposed at different angles; wood permanently aromatic.
=Bark.=--Bark of trunk thick, reddish, fibrous, shreddy, separating into
thin scales, becoming more or less furrowed in old trees; branches
reddish-brown; fine scaled; branches after fall of leaves, in the third
or fourth year, smooth, purplish-brown; season's shoots at first
greenish.
=Winter Buds and Leaves.=--Leaf-buds naked, minute. Leaves mostly
opposite, 4-ranked, adherent to the branchlet and completely covering
it; keeled in the side pairs and slightly convex in the others, dull
green, pointed at apex or triangular awl-shaped, mostly with a minute
roundish gland upon the back.
=Inflorescence.=--April. Flowers terminal, sterile and fertile, usually
on the same plant, rarely on separate plants, fertile on short
branchlets: sterile, globular or oblong, anthers opposite, filaments
shield-shaped: fertile, oblong or globular; ovuliferous scales opposite,
slightly spreading at top, dark reddish-brown.
=Fruit.=--Cones, variously placed, 1/2 inch in diameter, roundish,
purplish-brown, opening towards the center, never to the base; scales
shield-shaped, woody; seeds several under each scale, winged.
=Horticultural Value.=--Hardy throughout New England, growing best in
the southern sections. Young trees are graceful and attractive, but soon
become thin and lose their lower branches; valued chiefly in landscape
planting for covering low and boggy places where other trees do not
succeed as well. Seldom for sale in nurseries, but easily procured from
collectors. Several unimportant horticultural forms are grown.
1. Branch with flowers.
2. Sterile flower.
3. Stamen, back view.
4. Stamen, front view.
5. Fertile flower.
6. Ovuliferous scale with ovules.
7. Fruiting-branch.
8. Fruit.
9. Branch.
=Juniperus Virginiana, L.=