CUPBESSACEAE 57 



CUPRESSACEAE. Cypress Family. 

 Trees or shrubs with opposite or whorled scale-like (or rarely linear) leaves 

 thickly clothing the ultimate branchlets. Stamens and ovules in separate cat- 

 kins terminal on the branchlets. Staminate catkins small, with shield-like 

 stamens bearing 2 to 6 pollen-sacs. 0\^ilate catkins consisting of several 

 opposite or whorled scales which bear at base 1 to several erect ovules. Cones 

 dry or berry-like, of few scales; "scales" consisting (morphologically) of a 

 completely blended scale and bract. — Xine genera, widely distributed over the 

 earth. Thujopsis (Japanese Arborvitffi) is in cultivation with us. 



Bibliog. — Hooker, J. D., Monterey Cypress (Gard. Chron. 188.5, p. 176, fig.). Masters, M. T., 

 A General View of the Genus Cupressus (Jour. Linn. Soe. vol. 31, p. 312, — 1896). 

 Fruit a woody cone ; stamens aud ovules on same tree. 



Branchlets flattened, disposed in flat sprays; leaves opposite, in 4 rows, the successive 

 pairs unlike; cones maturing in first autumn; seeds 2 to each scale. 

 Scales of cones imbricated. 



Cones pendent, scales 6, only the middle pair seed-bearing; seeds unequally 



2-winged 1. Libocedrus. 



Cones reflexed, scales 8 to 12, the 2 or 3 middle pair seed-bearing; seeds equally 



winged 2. Thuja. 



Scales of cones peltate ; seeds narrowly winged 3. Cham.iecypaeis. 



Branchlets cord-like, not in flat sprays; leaves opposite, in 4 rows, alike ; cones maturing 



in second autumn; seeds acutely margined, many to each scale.... 4, CuPRESSirs. 



Fruit a berry; seeds 1 to 3 to each fruit; stamens and ovules on different trees; branchlets 



cord-like; leaves in whorls of 3 or opposite 5. JUNIPERUS. 



1. LIBOCEDRUS Endl. Incense Cedar. 



Aromatic trees with flattened branchlets disposed in one plane. Leaves 

 scale-like, opposite, iml)ricated in 4 rows, the successive pairs unlike. Stam- 

 inate and ovulate catkins terminal on separate branchlets. Staminate catkins 

 with 12 to 16 decussately opposite stamens, each bearing 4 to 6 pollen-sacs. 

 Ovulate catkins consisting of 6 scales with 2 ovules at the base of each. Cone 

 maturing in one season, oblong, composed of 6 imbricated oblong scales, only 

 the middle pair fertile. Seeds unequally 2-winged ; cotyledons 2. — Eight 

 species, 1 on the Pacific Coast of North America, 2 in Chile and 5 in the region 

 from southwestern China to New Zealand. (Libas, a drop — of resin — and 

 Cedrus, cedar.) 



1. L. decurrens Torr. Incense Cedar. Forest tree 50 to 150 feet high 

 with the strongly conical trunk very thick at base (1 to 6 feet in diameter) 

 and gradually diminishing in size upwards; bark thick, red-brown, loose and 

 fibrous, in age broken into prominent heav^' longitudinal furrows; ultimate 

 branchlets alternate, numerous, forming Hattish sprays and clothed with 

 adherent leaves as if jointed; leaves 1 to 4 lines long, in four ranks and in 

 opposite pairs, coherent, adherent to the stem and free only at tips, those above 

 and below obtuse but minutely pointed and forming a pair overlapped liy 

 the keel-shaped lateral pair; staminate catkins 11/2 to 2 lines long, the pollen- 

 sacs usually 5 to each scale which ends in a broad roundish crest; ovulate 

 catkins borne singly at the ends of branchlets; cones red-brown, oblong-ovate 

 when closed, % to 1 inch long, consisting of 2 seed-bearing scales with 3 (ap- 

 parently 1) sterile scales between them and often with 2 supplementary ones 

 at base ; seed-bearing scales broad and flattish but not thin ; all the scales with 

 a small triangular umbo at tip ; seeds 4 lines long, margined on each side from 



