THUYAS AND FLAT-LEAVED CYPRESSES 175 



that is to say, over-lapping, like tiles on a building 

 roof — the cones of the Cypress are peltate, formed 

 like a shield. This is a question already discussed 

 at length here and efforts at explanation adduced. 

 If we referred to it here further, and again, we might 

 (and rightly, too) fall under the shadow of super- 

 fluous w^ordiness. So much are their habits alike, 

 their leaves in frondose arrangement on one plane 

 and flattened, that the botanists of a previous day 

 lumped them both together into the same family 

 circle. 



At this date the importance of the cone differences 

 has over-ridden the importance of the leaf arrange- 

 ment, and they are placed en famille, as we have 

 placed them here. 



The fact that many of them are credited with a 

 smell of their own must really be left to the delicate- 

 nosed independence and taste of the variously con- 

 stituted nasal organs of the aspirant assayers to work 

 out the scent for themselves. Oiwt homines tot 

 sententice ; so many men, so many opinions, or shall 

 we translate it so many sensibilities? 



Some seem to think them all more or less agreeable ; 

 others that some are agreeable, others disagreeable. 



For instance, the C. Nootkatensis has a reputation 

 for being far more evil -smelling than the C. Lawsoniana. 

 Among the Picese and Abies the Amabilis has a 

 reputation for agreeableness. Its smell has been com- 

 pared to that of a citron or tangerine orange, a reputa- 

 tion that many think ought to be equally shared by 

 several, especially the glaucous-coloured trees — to 

 wit, the Pungens, Arizonica, Nobilis, and Concolor 

 Violacea. The particular perfume ascribed to them is 

 generally spoken of as like that of the citron or tan- 

 gerine orange. But let all these high-scented ideas, 

 as we have intimated, be settled according to the 

 perceptions of the individual. We only add that 



