Page:Floras Lexicon-1840.djvu/40



RBOR VIT&AElig;, or TREE OF LIFE. . Class 21,. Order:. Thuja, the name of a tree, whose very durable wood served, according to Theophrastus, to make images. Its roots, in particular, being curiously twisted or veined, were used for the most valuable ornamental works. This plant was probably the , very common throughout Greece and the Archipelago, of which it is supposed on good authority that the most ancient statues were made. Our present genus of Thuja has nothing in common with this classical plant, except being an aromatic evergreen tree of the same order, with very durable wood; but it is not a native of Greece or the Levant.