VIEW OF THE GENUS CUPRESSUS. 821 
branching is decussate or in two planes, branchlets being 
produced alike from the axils of the median and from those of 
the lateral leaves. Where the lateral leaves are compressed, the 
branching is really or apparently in one plane, no branches as a 
rule proceeding from the axils of the facial leaves. 
The foliage of a Chamecyparis (Letinospora, hort.), like that of 
a Thuya, is thus often more complex than that of Cupressus 
proper. A species of the section Chamecyparis has generally 
primordial, intermediate, and adult leaves; and, as has been 
stated, these sometimes all occur on different branches of the 
same tree at the same time, or one form of foliage may, tempor- 
arily at least, clothe the bush to the total or approximate 
exclusion of the others. Speakiug generally, true Cypresses have 
but two forms of foliage, the primordial and the adult. The 
adult leaves correspond in general appearance to the inter- 
mediate leaves of Chamecyparis. This raises a question whether 
the species of the section Chamecyparis may not be higher de- 
velopments of the Cupressineous type, for whilst a Chamecyparis 
may revert (so far as its foliar characters are concerned) to a 
Cupressus, we do not find a true Cupressus assuming the adult 
foliage of a Chamecyparis. The internal structure of the leaves 
of a Chamecyparis is also more differentiated than in the true 
Cupressus. 
That a physiological difference between the various kinds of 
foliage exists seems certain from the diversity of anatomical 
structure, and from the differences in growth. Cuttings bearing 
the primordial leaves “ strike freely,” as gardeners say, whilst 
cuttings taken from those branches bearing the adult form of 
foliage do not take root so readily, as if the vegetative energy 
were more or less arrested, in anticipation of the commencement 
of the reproductive stage. This notion, however, is not always 
borne out, for cones and male flowers are occasionally borne on 
the “ squarrosa " form of Cupressus pisifera bearing “ primordial ” 
leaves, and also on the “ plumosa” form, where the leaves are of 
an “intermediate” character. 
It must be remembered also that the characters presented by 
the mode of ramification and by the foliage are not peculiar to 
Cupressus, but are present in all the Cupressinex, which seem as 
if they all might have descended from a common stock closely 
allied to, if not the same as, that from which Lycopods and 
Selaginellas have been evolved. 
