VIEW OF THE GENUS CUPRESSUS. 315 
and Thuya, This is proved by the existence, sometimes on the 
same tree, of intermediate forms, by the presence of cones 
characteristic of the species on the branches exhibiting various 
phases of growth, and by the fact that seedling plants as they 
grow into the adult condition are found to present, on the same 
plant, all those foliar characteristics which have been relied on to 
discriminate the so-called “ species " of Retinospora. 
Although I do not concur in all the conclusions mentioned in 
the following passage from M. Carriére's * Traité, yet I cite it to 
show how extremely variable these plants are, and what impression 
that variability has made in the mind of a good observer in the 
habit of watching the development of these plants from the 
seedling stage upwards :—“ C'est ainsi que le type des Cupressus 
Lusitanica, Lambertiana, Goweniana et Knightii, trés-différents, 
finissent, par la suite des semis qu'on fait de leurs graines, par 
se confondre tellement qu'il devient tout-à-fait impossible de 
rapporter les individus au type dont ils sortent. Ainsi du 
C. Goweniana il est sorti des plantes qui se confondent avec les 
C. Hartwegii et Lambertiana, qui sont vigoureux, odorants, à 
branches distantes, étalées, etc., ete. Du C. Knightii il est sorti 
des individus qui se confondent tout-à-fait avec ceux qui provien- 
nent du C. Lusitanica. Mais un fait curieux et que je dois 
signaler est celui-ci: sur un pied de C. Goweniana, dont les 
strobiles étaient sphériques et trés-réguliers, il y avait, soit sur 
les mémes branches, soit sur les branches particuliéres, des 
strobiles sphériques et d'autres trés-allongés."—T'raité Général 
des Coniféres, par E. A. Carriére, p. 173 (1867). 
Habit and ramification.—In attempting to distinguish the 
species, recourse must be had to the mature condition of the tree 
and to the form and disposition of the permanent foliage. The 
outline of the herbaceous shoots (called * turiones" by some 
writers) *, and their method and degree of ramification supply 
suggestive indications. “These herbaceous shoots or branch- 
systems, both in this genus and in Thuya, would repay careful 
comparative studyt. Frequently they have but a limited duration, 
they shrivel, turn brown, and are cast off all in one piece, as a 
* “ Turiones, habitu conformes, experientia dissimiles. Nonnulli persistendo 
fiunt rami ; perplurimi discedendo frondes proprie nuncupari possunt, uti folia 
si mul et fructificationes ferentes.” —D’HERITIER, 
t See Sachs's Text-book, ed. Vines (1882), p. 209, also p. 509. 
