Thuja \Thu"ja\, n. [NL., from Gr. ? an African tree with
sweet-smelling wood.]
(Bot.)
A genus of evergreen trees, thickly branched, remarkable for
the distichous arrangement of their branches, and having
scalelike, closely imbricated, or compressed leaves. [Written
also thuya.]
See Thyine wood.
Note: Thuja occidentalis is the Arbor vit[ae] of the
Eastern and Northern United States. T. gigantea of
North-waetern America is a very large tree, there
called red cedar, and canoe cedar, and furnishes a
useful timber.
Source: Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)
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