Value for planting: Is hardy in New England, where it is especially used for hedges. It is also frequently used as a specimen tree on the lawn.
Commercial value: The wood is durable for posts, ties, and shingles. The bark contains considerable tannin and the juices from the tree have a medicinal value.
Other characters: The fruit is a cone about ½ inch long.
Other common names: Arbor-vitae is sometimes called white cedar and cedar.
Comparisons: The arbor-vitae is apt to be confused with the true white cedar (Chamæcyparis thyoides) but the leaves of the latter are sharp-pointed and not flattened or fan-shaped.
[Chapter II]
How To Identify Trees—(Continued)
[Group IV. The Larch And Cypress]
How to tell them from other trees: In summer the larch and cypress may easily be told from other trees by their leaves. These are needle-shaped and arranged in clusters with numerous leaves to each cluster in the case of the larch, and feathery and flat in the case of the cypress. In winter, when their leaves have dropped off, the trees can be told by their cones, which adhere to the branches.
There are nine recognized species of larch and two of bald cypress. The larch is characteristically a northern tree, growing in the northern and mountainous regions of the northern hemisphere from the Arctic circle to Pennsylvania in the New World, and in Central Europe, Asia, and Japan in the Old World. It forms large forests in the Alps of Switzerland and France.