STREET AND HIGHWAY PLANTING. 



33 



The commonest cypress is, of course, the Monterey cypress (Cupres- 

 xux macrocarpa) (Fig. 14). This has been planted freely and is still 

 being largely used in spite of the fact that in the Redlands-Riverside 

 district, its age is limited to forty or fifty years at best with a period 

 of marked shabbiness commencing anywhere from the twentieth to 

 the thirtieth year on. No one has as yet ascertained the cause of the 

 injury or the remedy, although there are many conjectures. This 

 decline in vigor is to be noted to a more slight degree throughout the 

 other parts of the State, but is not so marked or so objectionable as in 

 the south. 



The Italian or Oriental cypress (Cupressus sempervirens var. fas- 

 tigiata) is often found, and often in the most absurd places. Its tall 

 columnar form gives a formal effect which can 

 not be gainsaid. This very shape also makes 

 it practically useless as a shade tree. 



The problem, then, is simplified to the ques- 

 tion is there a place for so formal a tree as 

 the Indian cypress? No one will venture to 

 say that such a place may not be found. 

 Street planting at best is more or less formal 

 through force of necessity. The placing of 

 lights and poles for practical purposes must 

 be mathematical, and the symmetrical plant- 

 ing of the trees is more satisfactory than an 

 irregular or "landscaped" planting, if such a 

 term may be used. This is true, unless, with 

 extreme emphasis on the exception, unless 

 the paving of the streets and sidewalks, the 

 construction of the lights and the type of 

 architecture of the residences are all of such 

 exalted type that specially designed planting 

 is absolutely necessary. Then it is to be 

 hoped that the planting will be intrusted to one who shall have the same 

 intelligence and care as those who designed the residences. Landscape 

 work on the street is a most trying form of work and calls for a sane 

 mind and considerable native ingenuity. 



Lawson's cypress (Chamcecypans Lawsoniana) while not a true 

 cypress is considered here for convenience in grouping common names. 

 This tree is a tree which is found on the parkings and even under the 

 best of circumstances does not belong there. It produces a very dense 

 shade and considerable litter. It will survive on poor soil and with 

 little water, but at best looks rather untidy. On the lawn where it can 

 have the lower limbs preserved it makes a beautiful specimen. 

 3 F 



Figure 14. 



