CYPRESS AND JUNIPER TREES OF ROCKY MOUNTAIN REGION. 7 



(PI. I, a, h), and larger * and hornlike on the older fruit (PI. II, a). 

 The deep purplish-brown seeds (PI. I, c) are somewhat triangular in 

 form and irregular in size, but usually about one-eighth of an inch 

 long. The seed-leaves are from 3 to 5 (PI. II, d, lowermost long 

 leaves). 



The heartwood of Arizona cypress is a very light brownish-yellow, 

 and the sapwood a pale straw-color. It is moderately soft and of 

 light weight, narrow-ringed and straight-grained, splitting easily. 

 Dry, freshly cut wood has a slight cedarlike odor. When thoroughly 

 seasoned it is fairly durable in contact with the soil, but is used only 

 to a limited extent in supplying local demands for shakes, posts, 

 corral poles, and rough house logs, because the available supply is 

 small and difficult to obtain. The best grades, however, are suitable 

 for sash, doors, blinds, and other building purposes. The lumber 

 seasons well and is readily held in place. 



OCCURRENCE AND HABITS. 



Arizona cypress grows in moist or rather dry, rocky, shaly, or 

 gravelly soils on mountain slopes, and in the bottoms and on the sides 

 of canyons, at elevations between 4,500 and 8,000 feet. It is espe- 

 cially fond of moist north-slope gulches and benches where the growth 

 is more dense than in drier situations. For the most part it forms 

 pure or nearly pure stands, quite dense on the more favorable sites. 

 The largest and best formed trees occur on north slopes, in coves, 

 and on benches in protected localities, where the soil is moist, deep, 

 and more permeable, while short stunted trees are found in exposed 

 places where the scanty soil is drier and less permeable. Arizona 

 cypress is occasionally associated with Arizona pine, and at higher 

 elevations with huckleberry oak. In some parts of its range repeated 

 forest fires have destroyed the stand over large areas, so that the tree 

 occurs chiefly in patches and in rather small, isolated bodies. 



Seedlings and young trees are apparently able to endure dense shade 

 without having their height growth retarded. Later in life trees 

 may still maintain themselves indefinitely under rather heavy top 

 shade, but in such cases growth in diameter and height is very slow. 

 The lateral branches persist for a long time even in very close stands. 



Arizona cypress is a prolific seeder and in some localities bears 

 cones every year. Fresh seed shows a moderately high percentage 

 of germination, but the seedlings are likely to come up tardily at 

 irregular intervals. When seeds remain in unopen cones on living 



1 This appears to be due to the growth of tissue about the base of the bosses after the cone matures, and 

 sometimes also throughout the cone and its stem. Cones of Cupressus macnabiana and Cupressus glabra 

 exhibit the same characteristic. (See "Forest Trees of the Pacific Slope," p. 165.) Dried cones, in which 

 the living, spongy, green tissue has become shrunken, do not show this enlargement as conspicuously as 

 cones recently collected. 



