chamæcyparis

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. A genus of large coniferous timber-trees, represented in the eastern United States by the white cedar (C. sphæroidea), on the Pacific coast by the yellow or Sitka cypress (C. Nutkaensis) and the Port Orford cedar (C. Lawsoniana), and by four or five species in Japan and eastern Asia. The wood of most of the species is light, hard, and very durable, with an agreeable resinous odor, and is used for many purposes. Several of the species are frequently planted for ornament. The genus is nearly related to Thuya and Cupressus (in which the species are often included), differing from the former in its globose cone of peltate scales, and from the latter in its flattened two-ranked foliage and in the thin scales of the cone and the smaller number of seeds.