570 EVERGREEN TREES AND SHRUBS. 



THE LAWSON CYPRESS. Cupressus Lawsoniana. This tree 

 when young looks like a cross between a hemlock and a thrifty red 

 cedar, with a dash of arbor-vitae blood, but is more airy and thrifty 

 in growth than any of these trees. Its main stem rises with a very 

 decided leadership, throwing off numerous branches nearly at right- 

 angles, and at irregular distances around it. Those which are near 

 the base, taking a more upright direction as they grow in length, at 

 last become almost vertical, and surround the centre stem so as to 

 give the appearance of circles of smaller trees around the parent 

 tree. The top growths of the main-stem, and of all the surrounding 

 branches, bend with the same plumy grace as those of the hemlock ; 

 but their growth being more rapid, this peculiar grace is a more 

 marked feature of the tree. The growth of the leader is so rapid 

 that it seems to lift itself out of and above the group of environing 

 branches that form a dense mass below, so that all its gracefully 

 curving branchlets are very conspicuous. The tree shown on the 

 left of the vignette, page 569, is one of Parsons' specimens of this sort. 

 The color of the foliage is about the same as that of the American 

 arbor-vitae perhaps not quite so bright. The young wood has a 

 reddish-brown color, and smooth bark. Concerning the hardiness 

 of this tree, accounts vary. At Parsons & Co.'s grounds in Flushing 

 are very beautiful specimens sixteen feet high, in open ground, that 

 do not seem to have been touched by the cold at any time. Mr. 

 Sargent considers it hardy at his place at Fishkill; on the Hudson. 

 Hoopes thinks it promises to be hardy near Philadelphia. Yet we 

 have seen specimens from eight to ten feet high in a protected 

 situation in the grounds of Thos. S. Shepherd, Esq., of "Edge- 

 water," on the shore of Long Island Sound, near Mamaroneck, 

 N. Y., badly injured by the winter of 1867 and '68, which was not 

 unusually severe. This may, perhaps, be attributed to their growth 

 in too rich a border where they were stimulated into a strong late 

 fall growth. Hoopes mentions the necessity of avoiding this. At 

 Rochester the hardiness of this species is considered doubtful. 

 We would advise to take the benefit of the doubt, by testing it every- 

 where in the United States. It grows to the height of one hundred 

 feet in northern California. 



The C. I erec'a is a new English variety of exceedingly slender 



