CUPRESSACEAE. 23 



is the farthest from the ocean. The Redwood belt has here, consequently, its 

 greatest width. It is the tallest tree on the American continent. In the forests 

 near Scotia, a tree 662 years old, measured in September 1896, by C. S. Sargent, 

 had a trunk diameter of 10 ft. 5 in., a1 6 ft. above the ground, and was 340 ft. 

 in height. Trunks from 15 to 20 ft. in diameter are not uncommon in the 

 magnificent Redwood forests of Humboldt and Del Norte, and trees 20 to 25 

 ft. in diameter can be found. No other tree has been so important to the 

 development of civilization in California because the wood, abundant and 

 cheap, is exceedingly valuable for all sorts of building purposes and in manu- 

 factures and the arts. The region of this great coniferous forest is a very 

 attractive one, regarded from almost any point of view, and delights the eye and 

 mind of the tourist, as well as the botanical traveler. 



S. gigantea Dec. The Big Tree of the Sierra Nevada has awl-shaped leaves 

 ascending all around stem and cones 2 to 3% in. long. (An account of the Big 

 Tree groves may be found in Jepson, Trees Cal., p. 103.) 



CUPRESSACEAE. Cypress Family. 



Trees or shrubs with opposite or whorled scale-like (or rarely linear) leaves 

 thickly clothing the ultimate branchlets. Stamens and ovules in separate catkins. 

 Staminate catkins terminal on the branchlets, small, with shield-like stamens 

 bearing 2 to 6 pollen-sacs. Ovulate catkins consisting of several opposite ur 

 whorled scales which bear at base 1 to several erect ovules. Cones woody or in 

 Juniperus fleshy, consisting of few ''scales"; "scales" imbricated or shield- 

 shaped, consisting morphologically of a completely blended scale and bract. 



Branchlets flattened, disposed in one plane; leaves in 4 rows, the successive pairs unlike; 



cones with overlapping scales, seeds 2 to each scale, unequally 2-winged. . . 1. Libocedrus. 



Branchlets cord-like; leaves in 3 or 4 rows; cones subglobose, their scales peltate (not 



overlapping). 



Fruit a woody cone, its seeds many; stamens and ovules on same tree; leaves in 4 



rows 2 Cupressus. 



Fruit a berry, its seeds 1 to 3 ; stamens and ovules on different trees; leaves in whorls 

 of 3 or opposite 3. Juniperus. 



1. LIBOCEDRUS. Endl. 



Aromatic trees with flattened branchlets disposed in one plane. Leaves scale- 

 like, opposite, imbricated in 4 rows, the successive pairs unlike. Staminate and 

 ovulate catkins terminal on separate branchlets. Staminate catkins with 12 to 

 L6 decussately opposite stamens, each with 4 to 6 pollen-sacs. Ovulate catkins 

 consisting of 4 to 8 scales, only one pair ovule-bearing, each scale of this pair 

 with 2 ovules at base. Cones maturing in first autumn, oblong, composed of 

 imbricated oblong scales. Seeds unequally 2-winged; cotyledons 2. (Greek 

 libas, referring to the trickling of the resin, and kedros, cedar.) 



1. L. decurrens Torr. Ixcexse Cedar. Forest tree 50 to 12.1 ft. high with 

 conical trunk 2 to 7 ft. in diameter; bark cinnamon, loose or fibrous in age; 

 leaves minute, 1 to 3 lines long, coherent, also adherent to the stem, free only 

 at the tips, those above and below obtuse but minutely pointed and forming 

 a pair overlapped by the keel-shaped lateral pair; cones red-brown, oblong- 

 ovate when closed, % to 1 in. long, consisting of 2 seed-bearing scales witli one 

 septal scale between them and often with 2 small scales at base; seed-bearing 

 scales broad and flattish but not thin; all the scales with a small triangular 

 umbo at tip; seeds 4 lines long, margined on eacli side from near the base i" 

 the apex by two very unequal wings; larger wing ovatish, about o" lines long. 



Sierra Nevada, with Yellow Pine, Sugar Pin" and Whit.- Fir our of the 

 four most abundant trees in the main timber belt. Coast Ranges, rather lincom- 



