HARDY CONIFEROUS TREES 55 



hardy, free-growing, and beautiful tree, and one 

 that combines the useful wdth the ornamental in 

 a high degree. It has been planted largely in 

 every part of the British Isles and in soils and 

 situations that are widely different, yet it is rare 

 to find a diseased or unhealthy specimen. 



As an ornamental tree it is, perhaps, superfluous 

 to say one word in favour of this cypress, its 

 qualities in this particular being well known and 

 justly appreciated. We may, however, refer to 

 its cheerful and desirable shade of green all the 

 year and to the gracefully recurved and feather-like 

 branchlets, neither of w^hich is surpassed by any 

 other conifer. It is of columnar habit, but not 

 formal in outline, as it is reheved by the drooping 

 spray and elastic leading shoot, the latter being 

 just sufficiently tilted to one side to impart a 

 pleasing finish to the tree. The branchlets are 

 slender and flattened, the decurrent leaves arranged 

 thickly in alternately opposite pairs, while the 

 usually solitary roundly compressed cones are 

 about the size of peas, each composed of seven 

 scales and about nineteen seeds. The male catkins 

 are bright red and very conspicuous. The timber 

 is of a pleasing yellow colour, remarkably close of 

 grain and takes a nice smooth polish. It has been 

 used for panelling and furniture with good results, 

 but out of doors it has not proved so lasting. The 

 rate of growth is somew-hat rapid, specimens of 

 which I have kept a record ha\ing attained to the 

 height of 43 feet in twenty-seven years. It may 

 be of interest to state that I have seen self-sown 

 plants of the Lawson Cypress along the margins 

 of boggy woodlands in northern Ireland. 



