As usual with the sylva, flora,
and fauna, this also is found lowest along the coast, where it finds the
requisite temperature and other essentials, with combined moisture. The
base and lower trunk somewhat resembles the Western juniper (_J.
occidentalis_). It is to be noted in general that trees of such broad,
outwardly sweeping, or expanded bases seldom blow over, and to the
perceptive and artistic eye their significant character is one of
firmness and stability. One hundred to two hundred feet high, six to
nine feet in diameter (rarely larger) the shaft is often clear of limbs
80 to 100 feet, and although the lower limbs, or even dry branches, may
encumber the middle portion, pin-knots do not damage the timber. The
massive body tapers more rapidly above than redwood, and is less
eccentric than juniper, yet its general port resembles most the best
specimens of the latter. The light cinnamon bark is thick and of
shreddy-fibered texture, but so concretely compacted as to render the
surface evenly ridged by very long, big bars of bark. These sweep
obliquely down on the long spiral twist of swift water lines. The top is
conic, the foliage is in compressed, flattened sprays, upright,
thickened, and somewhat succulent; if not a languid type, at least in no
sense rigid. It bears some resemblance to the great Western arborvitae
(_Thuja gigantea_), but the tiny leaf-scales are opposite and quite
awl-pointed.
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