CHAP. XII.] CUPRESSINE^. 223 



and articulated like the branches. The male 

 catkins form a cone, in which the scales are 

 disposed in four rows, with three or four anthers 

 at the base of each. The female catkins 

 are solitary, and they divide, when ripe, into 

 four woody valves or scales, only two of which 

 bear seeds. The seeds are small, and have a 

 wing on one side. The tree is a native of 

 Morocco and Barbary, in which countries it 

 produces the gum-sandarach, which exudes 

 like tears from every part of the plant. The 

 wood is fragrant, very finely grained, and ex- 

 tremely durable, as is shown in the roof of the 

 Cathedral of Cordova, built in the ninth cen- 

 tury, which is of the wood of this tree. 



THE GENUS CUPRESSUS. THE CYPRESS. 



The evergreen cypress {Cupressus sempervirens) 

 is a cone-like, tapering tree, with its branches 

 growing close to its trunk, and rarely attaining 

 the height of fifty feet even in its native country. 

 The male catkins are longer than those of the 

 arbor vitse, and the female ones contain more 

 ovules. The cone is buckler-shaped, and it 

 divides, when ripe, into eight or ten corky scales, 

 each of which has four nuts attached ; the cone 

 being partially divided into cells, which may 

 be seen, when the scales have been removed 

 to show the interior. The pollen of each male 



