BRANCHLET SYSTEM OF CYPRESSES i6i 



sprays irregularly arranged and not in one plane, 

 and of sprays arranged in one plane, which we will 

 call attention to under the headings of branchlet 

 systems. 



Differences in the Branchlet System, or 

 Arrangements of Branchlets, of the Cu- 

 PRESSiNE.E Tribe 



This so-called branchlet system has nothing to do 

 with what w^e have previously discussed, namely the 

 shape of the ultimate branchlets. It has only 

 reference to the way in which branchlets are placed 

 on their parental stems, and the different way they 

 grow out from them. 



One habit is what botanists allude to as being 

 arranged " in one plane." The other, or contrary 

 habit, is simply expressed by negative form, and as 

 " not in one plane." 



" In one plane " is an arrangement after the manner 

 and plan of a common fern. " Not in one plane " is 

 when the branchlets stick out radially from the 

 parental stem, and from different points of situation 

 of that stem ; or to put it in another way, when the 

 branchlets jut out from the stem at different angles 

 in a sort of radial method, as do the leaves of the 

 Spruce. 



To take, for example, a spray of a Lawson Cypress, 

 which is described as arranged "in one plane": if 

 we pick a branchlet off and lay it upon a table, it 

 should lie out flat, because its branchlets, like our 

 human arms, are naturally situated in one plane and 

 spread out evenly from only two sides of the branch. 

 But if you take the leaf of " not in one plane " 

 branchlet system. Cypress {e.g. the Macrocarpa, or 

 Sempervirens), a branchlet similarly treated cannot 

 rest flat on a table, because its branches, like the 



