i62 CYPRESSES AND JUNIPERS 



Oak tree or other hard-wood trees, stick out at all 

 angles. 



Sometimes authorities talk of this characteristic 

 branchlet system as " flattened," which means in one 

 plane, but care must be exercised that no confusion 

 arises between the two terms " branchlet system 

 flattened " and " flat-leaved," ultimate branchlet- 

 shape expressions which allude to two entirely different 

 features in the structure of the tree, as we have tried 

 to explain ; but both are terms in vogue among the 

 authorities and fixed stars of the arboricultural 

 firmament. 



Differences in the Leaves of the Cupressine^e 

 Tribe of Trees 



The leaves of this tribe are not, more than in any 

 other part of their structure, to be denied a prominent 

 part in the telling of their differences, in spite of the 

 fact, too, that their presence is perhaps the least 

 apparent and felt of those of any trees that we en- 

 counter. They call for a microscope to investigate them 

 satisfactorily, and only tell their tale with reserve. 



The little stem-clasping apologies for leaves upon 

 these Cypresses are hardly what our primitive instincts 

 were awakened to regard as leaves. They do not 

 appear to maintain that separate existence from the 

 branch that the more ordinarily well-conducted 

 leaves we were once led to suppose were expected 

 to exhibit. 



Nor on the deciduous day of their decease do they 

 fall away and wither separately as they ought to do, 

 but instead, at the fateful moment,' the herbaceous 

 branchlet browns and dies and with it still in clinging 

 affinity, do they also pass away and perish. Yet 

 leaves they are, these little minute overlapping scale 

 appurtenances, and as leaves they have to be reckoned 



