162 CYPRESSES AND JUNIPERS 
Oak tree or other hard-wood trees, stick out at all 
angles. 
Sometimes authorities talk of this characteristic 
branchlet system as ‘‘ flattened,”’ which means in one 
plane, but care must be exercised that no confusion 
arises between the two terms “ branchlet system 
flattened ’ and “ flat-leaved,”’ ultimate branchlet- 
shape expressions which allude to two entirely different 
features in the structure of the tree, as we have tried 
to explain ; but both are terms in vogue among the 
authorities and fixed stars of the arboricultural 
firmament. 
DIFFERENCES IN THE LEAVES OF THE CUPRESSINEE 
TRIBE OF TREES 
The leaves of this tribe are not, more than in any 
other part of their structure, to be denied a prominent 
part in the telling of their differences, in spite of the 
fact, too, that their presence is perhaps. the least 
apparent and felt of those of any trees that we en- 
counter. They call for a microscope to investigate them 
satisfactorily, and only tell their tale with reserve. 
The little stem-clasping apologies for leaves upon 
these Cypresses are hardly what our primitive instincts 
were awakened to regard as leaves. They do not 
appear to maintain that separate existence from the 
branch that the more ordinarily well-conducted 
leaves we were once led to suppose were expected 
to exhibit. 
. Nor on the deciduous day of their decease do they 
fall away and wither separately as they ought to do, 
but instead, at the fateful moment, the herbaceous 
branchlet browns and dies and with it still in clinging 
affinity, do they also pass away and perish. Yet 
leaves they are, these little minute overlapping scale 
appurtenances, and as leaves they have to be reckoned 
