PINACE.E 



63 



ually narrowed into long slender points. Fruit maturing in the second year, ovoid-oblong, 

 2'-3|' long, l'-2j' wide, dark reddish brown, the scales gradually thickened upward from 

 the base to the slightly dilated apex, f-'-l j' long, and j'-?' wide, deeply pitted in the middle, 

 often furnished with an elongated reflexed tip and on the upper side near the base with 

 two or three large deciduous resin-glands; seeds linear-lanceolate, compressed, |'-j' long, 

 light brown, surrounded by laterally united wings broader than the body of the seed, apicu- 

 late at the apex, often very unequal. 



A tree, at maturity usually about 275 high, with a trunk 20 in diameter near the ground, 

 occasionally becoming 320 tall, with a trunk 35 in diameter, much enlarged and buttressed 



Fig. 63 



at base, fluted with broad low rounded ridges, in old age naked often for 150 with short 

 thick horizontal branches, slender leading branchlets becoming after the disappearance of 

 the leaves reddish brown more or less tinged with purple and covered with thin close or 

 slightly scaly bark and naked buds. Bark l-2 thick, divided into rounded lobes 4-5 

 wide, corresponding to the lobes of the trunk, separating into loose light cinnamon-red 

 fibrous scales, the outer scales slightly tinged with purple. Wood very light, soft, not 

 strong, brittle and coarse-grained, turning dark on exposure; manufactured into lumber 

 and used for fencing, in construction, and for shingles. 



Distribution. Western slopes of the Sierra Nevada of California, in an interrupted belt 

 at elevations of 5000-8400 above the level of the sea, from the middle fork of the Ameri- 

 can River to the head of Deer Creek just south of latitude 36; north of King's River in 

 isolated groves, southward forming forests of considerable extent, and best developed on 

 the north fork of the Tule River. 



Universally cultivated as an ornamental tree in all the countries of western and southern 

 Europe; and occasionally in the middle eastern United States. 



8. TAXODIUM Rich. Bald Cypress. 



Resinous trees, with furrowed scaly bark, light brown durable heartwood, thin white 

 sapwood, erect ultimately spreading branches, deciduous usually 2-ranked lateral branch- 

 lets, scaly globose buds, and stout horizontal roots often producing erect woody projec- 

 tions (knees). Leaves spirally disposed, pale and marked with stomata below on both 

 sides of the obscure midrib, dark green above, linear-lanceolate, spreading in 2 ranks, or 

 scale-like and appressed on lateral branchlets, the two forms appearing on the same or on 

 different branches of the same tree or on separate trees, deciduous. Flowers unisexual, 

 from buds formed the previous year; male in the axils of scale-like bracts in long terminal 

 drooping nanicles, with 6-8 stamens opposite in 2 ranks, their filaments abruptly enlarged 



