Cupressus 12.05 



account of its superior timber ; but it is surpassed both in size and numbers by the 

 Douglas and Thuya, which attain 250 to 300 ft. in height and 20 to 30 ft, in girth, 

 while the largest cypress that I measured was^ only 200 ft. by 14 ft. 6 in. A tree 

 which had been felled had a diameter, exclusive of bark, of 44 in., and showed 220 

 annual rings, with 2^ in. of sapwood, containing thirty-three rings. 



I saw a great deal of this species on my way by stage-coach from Grant's Pass, 

 on the railway, through the Siskiyou mountains to the Redwood belt on the coast of 

 California at Crescent City. Here it follows the course of the streams up to 3000 ft., 

 growing in company with Douglas fir and other species in shady ravines, and attain- 

 ing about 1 20 ft. in height and 3 ft. in diameter. On the dry hills it is immediately 

 replaced by Libocedrus decurrens, though Pinchot says it is occasionally found on dry 

 and sunny exposures in company with Pinus ponderosa and P. Lambertiana. Both 

 here and at Coquille I saw numerous seedlings, less numerous but very uniform in 

 appearance, in the shade of the parent tree in the forest ; while they were excessively 

 common on clearings and on agricultural land on the outskirts of the forest, and showed 

 great variation when they were exposed to sunlight in youth. They grow most 

 freely on mossy banks, rooting between the crevices. In the Redwood belt I saw 

 cypress trees only on the banks of wide streams, where they are much smaller in 

 stature and girth than the immense redwoods behind them. Pinchot says, however, 

 that this species grows well in the north-west of California in swampy situations near 

 the sea, associated with Sitka spruce, Abies grandis, and hemlock, but rarely forming 

 a considerable part of the forest. 



In Oregon close to the coast it thrives on sandy soil, and grows even on the 

 sand dunes within reach of the spray of the ocean. In this State it has to compete 

 with Thuya plicata in the moister deeper soil, as the latter species tends to outgrow 

 and suppress it. In the forest it has a straight cylindrical stem, free of branches 

 for half its height, with a slender drooping leader, which is bent away from the 

 direction of the prevailing wind. It begins to bear seed when six to twelve 

 years old, continuing annually in profusion to an advanced age. This abundance 

 of seed enables it to spring up readily on logged-over and burnt areas. Seedlings 

 in Oregon 5 ft. high showed ten annual rings. It occasionally is seen with a 

 double stem ; but, as a rule, it repairs its leader readily, which is, however, rarely 

 injured except high up in the mountains when there is a heavy snowfall. It differs 

 from all the other cypresses in its remarkably thick bark, which in its structure of 

 two layers resembles that of the redwood. (A. H.) 



Cultivation 



William Murray first sent seeds of this tree from the valley of the upper 

 Sacramento river in California to Lawson's nursery at Edinburgh in 1854, but only 



' Sargent, Pinchot, and Mayr all agree in giving 200 ft. in height and 12 ft. in diameter as the maximum measurements 

 of the Lawson cypress, but I doubt if it ever exceeds 7 ft. in diameter. The Douglas fir, Redwood, and Thuya, wherever 

 they are associated with the Lawson cypress, much surpass it both in height and girth. Sir Victor Brooke, quoted by Lord 

 Annesley in Beautiful Trees, 8 (1903), states that he measured a Lawson cypress 66 ft. 11 in. in girth, but he evidently 

 refers to Thuya plicata, as there is nothing in his diary to show that he was ever in the region where the Lawson cypress 

 grows. 



