90 



AMERICAN FORESTRY 



bluish bloom. The cones are borne on 

 stout stems from one-fourth to one- 

 half an inch long. Ripened cones re- 

 main unopened on the branches from 

 fourteen to eighteen years, possibly 

 even longer, the seeds being retained 

 during this period. To what extent the 

 seeds preserve their vitality during this 

 time is at present unknown to the 

 writer, who has not yet had an oppor- 

 tunity of testing these old seeds. The 

 red-brown seeds vary in form from a 

 triangular to a rounded and somewhat 

 rectangular shape. They are from 

 three-sixteenths to five-sixteenths of an 

 inch long, the larger dimensions being 

 more common. The foliage has a 

 bright blue-green (glaucous) aspect due 

 to a pale bloom on the leaves. The 

 leaves on old sprays are (about one- 

 sixteenth of an inch long) closely 

 pressed to the twigs, acutely pointed, 

 thickened and keel-shaped on the back, 

 and nearly all bear a resinous pit 

 (gland) on the back. Young shoots 

 bear closely pressed leaves from one- 

 fourth to one-half an inch long, but 

 with very keen spreading points. The 

 leaves die during the second year, turn 

 a bright red-brown and remain on the 

 twigs for about four years ; later the 

 twigs and small branches become ashy- 

 gray. Male flowers are abundant, but 

 as yet the female flowers have not been 

 discovered. 



The wood of this cypress is exceed- 

 ingly durable in an unprotected state ; 

 even the sapwood has great durability 

 exposed to weather and soil. Cabins 

 built of the logs forty years ago are still 

 in a good state of preservation, while 

 fence-posts and corral poles show but 

 little decay after twenty years' exposure. 

 Marked durability of this wood is in 

 contrast with the wood of Cupressus 

 arizonica, which is not particularly of 

 lasting quality. The sapwood of C. 

 glabra is a pale straw-color and the 

 heartwood is a very light brownish 



yellow. The wood is hard, heavy, 

 usually very fine-grained, and when 

 freshly cut it has a slight cedar-like 

 odor. 



As known at present Cupressus 

 glabra ranges from an elevation of 

 about 3,700 feet to 5.500 above sea 

 level. The \'erde Canyon forest is 

 about six miles long and about one and 

 one-half miles wide. The trees are as- 

 sociated more or less at lower eleva- 

 tions with Pinus monophylla. and Quer- 

 cus chrysolepsis. Higher up, except in 

 the drier areas, the cypress forms the 

 principal tree-growth. It chooses a 

 north slope entirely, growing best in 

 protected watered gulches and on the 

 sides of shallow canyons, but it occurs 

 also on the intervening benches and 

 ridges where the shaley soil is moist. 



L'nquestionably this cypress will later 

 be found to have a much wider range. 

 It is probable that the large grove of 

 "Arizona cypress" described by Prof. 

 T. \Y. Toumey (Garden and Forest. 

 \TII, 32) in 1895 on Pine Creek at the 

 "Natural Ijridge" in central Arizona is 

 Cupressus glabra. Prof. Toumey ap- 

 peared at that time to doubt that this 

 Pine Creek cypress was the same as the 

 one (Cupressus arizonica) found in 

 the Chiricahua Mountains. He notes, 

 in the case of the Pine Creek trees, 

 that the bark "peels off in long shreds," 

 a character not observed in the Chirica- 

 hua trees. Arthur H. Zachau, Forest 

 Supervisor, who had seen both the Chir- 

 icahua and the \"erde River cypresses 

 noted the marked dift'erence in the barks 

 of these trees and called the writer's 

 attention to the northern cypress in 

 1907. It was not, however, until De- 

 cember, 1909, that the writer found an 

 opi^ortunit}' of investigating this tree. 



The few settlers seen who know this 

 cypress call it "yew-wood," because its 

 smooth purple-red bark resembles that 

 of the northwestern yew. Taxus 

 brevi folia. 



