5 o6 



CUPRESSUS. 



THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. 



CtTKESSUS. 



The beautiful Eastern Cypress, so fine in 

 the Italian and Eastern landscape, is 

 worth planting under the best conditions ; 

 so distinct a tree would, if hardy, have 

 been everywhere planted long ago. I have 

 seen very fine specimens of it here and 

 there, as at White Knights. 



Many know the beauty of a few of j 

 these trees in the small state, but few ! 

 realise their dignity and beauty as forest 

 trees, such as the great Japanese 

 Cypress, and if we take the trouble to 

 grow and group them well there are no 

 more effective trees in their perennial 

 verdure. But the system of increasing 

 them adopted in nurseries by which these 

 trees, being very free in growth, lend them- 

 selves to increase from cuttings like 

 verbenas and geraniums, does not help 

 to the possession of the trees in all their 

 dignity. Trees we should raise always in 

 the natural way, i.e. from seed, and I 

 find some of these cypresses and their 

 allies break into a number of stems and 

 lose the tree form, the result of this 

 cutting propagation, so entirely needless 

 in the case of forest trees of the highest 

 beauty which some of these are. In the 

 case of the numerous variegated and 

 other garden varieties, cuttings or graft- 

 ing must be followed in order that one 

 particular variety may be preserved. In 

 the tree this is quite needless and wrong ; 

 but once started on the path of disease 

 and novelty-hunting, and artificially in- 

 creasing what are often mere " states " of 

 the conifer, it is not so easy to return 

 to more natural ways unless the planter 

 protects himself by raising the tree from 

 seed, or by insisting upon seedling plants. 

 In the case of the Lawson Cypress there 

 are, without end, variegated (i.e. merely 

 diseased) forms, and many others with 

 pompous Latin names, not only worthless 

 themselves, but filling the catalogues with 

 a pretence of sham science, chaotic lists of 

 long and absurd names, the laughing stock 

 of the learned. Unhappily the public is 

 likely to think one name as good as another, 

 and the really good points of a noble tree 

 are obscured by the system of giving a 

 name to every trifling " form " that hap- 

 pens to occur in a nursery. 



C. FUNEBRIS (Chinese Funeral Cypress}. 

 A hardy picturesque tree in its own country, and 

 sometimes reaching a height of nearly 50 feet. 

 Robert Fortune described it as having a beau- 

 tiful effect in the Chinese landscape ; but, un- 

 happily, it is not hardy in our country, though 

 here and there it may be seen in sheltered and 

 warm places. 



C. GOWENIANA (Gowen Cypress). A low 

 growing tree from the neighbourhood of Mon- 



terey, in California, and of doubtful hardiness in 

 our country. It may be classed with a group, 

 unhappily, many of them tender in this 

 country. It is known from the Monterey 

 Cypress by its spreading, slender, and pendu- 

 lous habit and small cones. 



C. LAWSONIANA (Lawson Cypress). A tall 

 and beautiful tree of the Pacific coast of N. 

 America, 100 feet high and very free in our 

 climate. Unfortunately, I think, owing to 

 propagation from cuttings insteau of in the 

 natural way from seed, the tree often breaks 

 into a number of stems which interferes with 

 its natural habit and beauty. It varies very 

 much into what is called "sports," and which 

 is really often a manifestation of disease, 

 especially when they take the variegated form. 

 There are a number of fastigiate forms of 

 which, perhaps, the best is Waterer's ; but 

 they are mere malformations, and as they get 

 old the branches are pressed so closely to- 

 gether that they die, unless we take the trouble 

 to tie or wire them up in some 

 way to prevent them falling 

 about. The spreading varieties 

 are not so liable to this, but 

 many of them go back, as they 

 get older, towards the natura'. 

 form of tree of which they are 

 mere states. For the pendulous 

 ones there is perhaps a little 

 excuse for the globular ones 

 none at all ; and the multiplicity 

 of Latin names for these things 

 in catalogues does harm in weak- 

 ening the interest in the natural 

 tree. 



C. LUSITANICA (Cedar of 

 God). A name well known 

 through books and lists, and a 

 graceful tree of uncertain origin, cupressus sem- 

 but not succeeding in our pervirens. 

 country,. save in seashore gar- 

 dens and very mild districts. It is naturalised 

 in temperate countries like Spain and Portugal. 



C. MACNABIANA (Macnatfs Cypress). A 

 California!! tree, rather dwarf and without 

 much of the grace of the Cypress generally. 

 Compact, glaucous, not more than 10 feet 

 high ; coming from a cold country the true 

 plant is quite hardy. 



C. MACROCARPA (Monterey Cypress). A 

 very graceful and often stately tree, much 

 planted and succeeding well near the sea 

 coast. It is described in catalogues and even 

 in books on Forestry as hardy, but it is not so, 

 perishing in severe winters, even near the 

 coast. Like many other conifers, it has 

 varieties of little value. 



C. NOOTKATENSIS (Yellow Cypress). 

 Really a most distinct tree, and I think 

 the most precious of the whole family for our 

 country, being quite hardy. It is a native of 

 the Northern Pacific coast and British Colum- 

 bia, and has various synonyms and several 

 variegated varieties of no value compared with 

 the wild tree. I have found it to thrive in 

 cold ordinary soils, and it is a pleasure to see 



