CUPIIESSUS. 199 



than a few inches in a single season ; the branches are for the most 

 part irregularly developed and impart an unsymmetrical habit to the 

 tree unless occasionally pruned.* It is worthy of remark that none 

 of the Fitzroyas (Chilian species) growing in Great Britain so far as 

 they have been observed, produce staminate flowers, but ovuliferous 

 strobiles are produced in great profusion from an early age of the 

 tree. 



CUPEESSUS. 



Linnaeus. Sp. Plant. II. 1002 (1753). Endlicher, Synops. Conif. 55 (1847). Parlatore, 

 D. C. Prodr. XVI. 467 (1868). Bentham and Hooker, Gen. Plant. III. 427 (1881). 

 Eichler in Engler and Prantl, Nat. Pfl. Fam. 99 (1887). Masters in Joimi. Linn. Soc. 

 XXXI. 325 (1896). Including Chamsecyparis, Spach, Hist. Nat Veg. Phan. XI. 329 (1842); 

 and Retinispora, Siebold and Zuccarini, Fl. Jap. II. 42 (genus falsum}. 



The genus Cupressus includes some of the most beautiful and 

 interesting trees in Nature, and as the majority of the species are 

 more or less hardy in Great Britain their value as subjects for 

 garden decoration is very great, a value greatly enhanced by the 

 numerous abnormities into which many of them have diverged under 

 cultivation, and which has resulted in the " fixing " of forms of very 

 distinct habit and aspect originating from the same species. The 

 most remarkable instances of polymorphism occur in Cupressus 

 Lawsoniana, C. oUusa and C. pisifera, of which it may be remarked 

 that the abnormities of the one for the most part simulate those 

 of the others, thus affording evidence of order and method in the 

 production of an apparently inexplicable diversity of forms, f 



The genus in its extent and circumscription as here understood, is 

 the same as in the monograph elaborated by Dr. Maxwell Masters 

 in the " Journal of the Linnean Society," loc. cit. supra. The essential 

 characters are : 



Flowers monoecious. Stamiiiate flowers terminal 011 short branchlets 

 of the preceding year. Stamens numerous, in decussate pairs with 

 short filaments and orbicular or sub-peltate connectives bearing two six 

 anther cells. 



Seminiferous cones (strobiles) composed of eight ten scales thickened 

 at the apex or exposed side into a peltate expansion and bearing 

 beneath it two seven or more seeds in one two series. 



* Among the largest specimens known to the author is one at Killerton in South Devon 

 over 25 feet high ; one at Upcott, near Bamstaple, of nearly the same dimensions ; one at 

 Fota Island, near Cork, in which the terminal growths are much elongated and elegantly 

 pendulous ; and one at Kilmacurragh, Co. Wicklow, which has taken the form of a dense 

 rounded shrub 12 feet in diameter. There is also one at Belsay in Northumberland over 

 20 feet high growing on sandstone quarry refuse, which has been watched and supernumerary 

 leaders pruned off whenever they have appeared. The failure of the Fitzroya to grow satis- 

 factorily in this country is doubtless due to climatic causes similar to those which affect 

 Saxeqothoea conspicua and Libocedrus tetragona. 



t It should, however, be noted that whilst many of these abnormities may become 

 " fixed " by propagation from cuttings and by grafting, many others lose their peculiar 

 form and colour as they increase in age, the reversion to a normal type taking place more 

 rapidly in some varieties than in others. 



