228 CUPRESSUS SEMPERVIRENS. 



Comparing Cupressus pisifera with C. oltusa. In Japan the latter is the 

 larger tree, in Great Britain this proportion is thus far reversed, 

 C. pisifera being the taller and freer grower. Both in habit and aspect 

 the two species may be readily distinguished from each other : C. obtusa 

 has a more regular outline; it is denser in aspect and deeper in colour: 

 in C. pisifera the branches both primary and secondary are usually longer 

 and more slender, and what is of more value in a botanical sense, 

 the cones are much smaller with differently shaped scales, and the 

 scale-like leaves are more acute, more distinctly free at their apical 

 end and are marked with white lines on the under side of the 

 branchlets. 



The varieties of Cupressus pisifera are among the most ornamental of 

 trees and shrubs, and are especially suitable for small gardens ; they 

 thrive in a greater variety of soils and situations than the varieties of 

 C. obtusa and will often grow where the latter fail. Plumosa and its 

 coloured sub-varieties are transitional or intermediate forms between the 

 primordial and adult states ; they take the highest rank as horticultural 

 plants among the so-called "plumose" forms; they are not only in 

 general use in several departments of out-of-door gardening but they are 

 also much cultivated in pots for windows in London and other large 

 towns. The variety squarrosa, a remarkably distinct one, was first seen 

 in cultivation around Tokio by Siebold and afterwards by Maximowicz, 

 both of whom described it as a distinct species, its real origin being 

 unknown to them. As pointed out by Beissner, it is a "Jugend- 

 form" that has been perpetuated from cuttings of C. pisifera with 

 primordial leaves only. Since its introduction into Great Britain sterile 

 cones have been occasionally produced which are identical in 

 structure with those of the parent. More rarely branch-sports 

 (Sportzweige) have appeared with the adult foliage of C. pisifera, thus, 

 confirming its origin. 



Cupressus sempervirens. 



A tree of variable height and habit but usually recognisable in two 

 distinct forms: the one with spreading branches and of broadly pyramidal 

 or conical outline, but in old age with an open head and of irregular 

 outline ; the other with upright branches more or less appressed to the 

 trunk and to each other, forming a flame-shaped or columnar tree of 

 dense aspect. Branches terete with smooth reddish brown bark much 

 ramified at the distal end ; ramification tetrastichous (four-ranked), the- 

 herbaceous shoots short, pinnately branched and falling off in the third or 

 fourth year. Leaves on the axial growths broadly ovate or ovate-oblong,, 

 obtuse or abruptly mucronate, concrescent, rarely free at the apex,, 

 becoming effete the second or third year; on the lateral and herbaceous 

 shoots much smaller, scale-like, broadly ovate or rhomboid-oblong, closely 

 imbricated and marked with a gland on the back. Staminate flowers; 

 oblong, about one-eighth of an inch long, pale orange-yellow, containing 

 ten twelve anthers in decussate pairs. Strobiles mostly in clusters of 

 two five, rarely solitary, subsessile or shortly pedunculate, very variable 

 in size and shape, composed of eight twelve subquadrate or obscurely 

 pentagonal scales, smooth or slightly rugose, and with a rather blunt 

 pyramidal umbo. 



