158 CYPRESSES AND JUNIPERS 



Some Points of Difference among the 

 CupRESSiNE^ Tribes 



All those who start upon the long, long quest of a 

 perfected knowledge in all the varied intricacies of 

 the family tree of all the Cupressineae cannot hope 

 for anything otherwise than to find themselves 

 puzzled on the early stages of their journey, if not 

 hopelessly adrift amidst the clouds of embarrassment. 

 And further, it will probably call forth no mean 

 exercise of patience on the part of the more perfunc- 

 tory student — I exclude from this category the 

 botanical expert and specialist — before he can hope 

 to see these clouds lift. An ascendancy over the 

 initial mysteries of the cone differences is the first 

 rung of the ladder of experience upon which to obtain 

 a footing, and this will carry the aspirant farther, 

 anyhow, than many of those that he meets in the 

 ordinary walks of life. 



Differences in the Cone, or Strobile, Structure 

 OF THE Cupressineae Tribe of Trees 



The cones, or strobiles as they are sometimes called, 

 of the Cupressi, Thuyas, and Junipers — all of them 

 sub-tribes of the great Cupressineae Tribe — are of a 

 totall}^ different appearance. When you have even 

 glanced at an illustration of them 3^ou cannot but 

 feel that you have conquered the first position of the 

 entanglement. The acquired knowledge of the differ- 

 ence between chalk from cheese is an accomplishment 

 that calls for no more power of attainment than 

 mastery over the differences of a Cupressus and a 

 Thuya cone, and the fact that these members of the 

 Coniferae are prolific cone bearers and cone dispersers 

 adds materially to the ease and convenience of the 

 would-be student, 



