76 TREES OF NORTH AMERICA 



spreading pale liver-colored scales and black ovules. Fruit \ r in diameter, sessile on a 

 short leafy branch, light green, covered with a glaucous bloom when fully grown, later 

 bluish purple and very glaucous, finally becoming dark red-brown, its scales terminat- 

 ing in ovate acute, often reflexed bosses; seeds 1 or 2 under each fertile scale, ovoid, acute, 

 full and rounded at the base, slightly compressed, gray-brown, about \' long, with wings 

 as broad as the body of the seed and dark red-brown. 



A tree, 70-80 high, with a tall trunk usually about 2 and occasionally 3-4 in diam- 

 eter, or northward much smaller, slender horizontal branches forming a narrow spire-like 

 head, and 2-ranked compressed branchlets disposed in an open fan-shaped more or less de- 



Fig. 75 



ciduous spray, the persistent branchlets gradually becoming terete, light green tinged with 

 red, light reddish brown during their first winter, and then dark brown, their thin close 

 bark separating slightly at the end of three or four years into small papery scales. Bark 

 f'-l' thick, light reddish brown, and divided irregularly into narrow flat connected ridges 

 often spirally twisted round the stem, separating on the surface into elongated loose 

 or closely appressed plate-like scales. Wood light, soft, not strong, close-grained, slightly 

 fragrant, light brown tinged with red; largely used in boat-building and cooperage, for 

 woodenware, shingles, the interior finish of houses, fence-posts, and railway-ties. 



Distribution. Cold swamps usually immersed during several months of the year, often 

 forming dense pure forests; near Concord, New Hampshire, southern Maine, southward 

 only near the coast to northern Florida, and westward to southwestern Mississippi; most 

 abundant south of Massachusetts Bay; comparatively rare east of Boston and west of 

 Mobile Bay. 



Occasionally planted as an ornamental tree in the eastern states and in the countries 

 of temperate Europe. 



2. Chamaecyparis nootkatensis Sudw. Yellow Cypress. Sitka Cypress. 

 Cupressus nootkatensis Lamb. 



Leaves rounded, eglandular or glandular-pitted on the back, dark blue-green, closely 

 appressed, about f long, on vigorous leading branchlets somewhat spreading and often 

 \' long, with more elongated and sharper points, beginning to die at the end of their second 

 year and usually falling during the third season. Flowers: male on lateral branchlets of the 

 previous year, composed of 4 or 5 pairs of stamens, with ovate rounded slightly erose light 

 yellow connectives: female clustered near the ends of upper branchlets, dark liver color, 

 the fertile scales each bearing 2-4 ovules. Fruit ripening in September and October, 



