VARIETIES OF CUPRESSUS NOOTKATENSIS. 219 



var. aureo-variegata. 



Similar to the preceding except that the youngest braiichlet systems 

 or parts of them are bright golden yellow instead of cream-white. 



var. lutea. 



In this variety the whole of the current year's growth is at first 

 light yellow which changes gradually towards the end of the summer 

 to bright grass-green. 



Cupressus nootkatcnsis was originally discovered by Archibald 

 Menzies in 1793, from whose herbarium specimens gathered 011 the 

 shore of Nootka Sound it was first described by David DOD in 

 Lambert's " Genus Pinus." It was introduced into European gardens 

 through the Imperial Botanic Garden at St. Petersburg about the 

 year 18.50, and became distributed under the unpublished name 

 of Thujopsis lorealis. It is essentially a northern tree, inhabiting a 

 maritime region of considerable extent in north-west America. From 

 Sitka it spreads southwards through the islands and along the coast 

 range of Alaska and British Columbia from sea-level up to 

 2.000 3,000 feet elevation. It is abundant in Cjueen Charlotte's 

 Island, on the Olympian mountains in Washington and on the slopes 

 of Mount Raines, but becomes quite rare as it approaches its southern 

 limit in Oregon. It is one of the most valuable timber trees in 

 the region over which it is spread, being unsurpassed by any other 

 North American tree for the manufacture of household furniture and 

 indoor carpentry. " The wood is light and hard, close-grained, 

 exceedingly durable in contact with the soil, easily worked and 

 susceptible of receiving a beautiful polish."* 



As a tree for British lawns and pleasure grounds Cupressus nootkatemi* 

 is one of the most appreciated, being perfectly hardy and thriving in 

 any ordinary soil not too dry. None of the forms into which it has 

 sported under cultivation surpasses in effectiveness the originally introduced 

 type, which is so well marked by its broadly conical outline and deep 

 green foliage f that it may be distinguished without difficulty from 

 C. Lawsoniana, for which it is occasionally mistaken. The two species 

 are also further distinguished thus : C. nootkatensis rarely, if ever, 

 grows into the dense columnar or tower-like shape so common to 

 C. Laivsoniana ; the frondose, leafy branchlets of the former are 

 shorter, stouter and frequently more pendulous ; the staminate flowers 

 are sulphur-yellow, not crimson as in C. Lawsoniana, and the strobiles 

 are larger, usually with one more pair of scales that have a sharper 

 umbo. 



* Silva of North America, Vol. X. p. 116. 



t Strikingly beautiful are the tine specimens of this form standing on each side of 

 the drive leading to Streatham Hall, Exeter, the residence of Mr. R. Bowerman West. The 

 trees, 25 to 30 feet in height, are twenty-four in immber, of which twelve have their 

 branchlets more pendulous than the others. Many more equally good are standing in 

 different parts of the grounds. 



