IOWA ACADEMY OF SCIENCE 
23 
G'/pressus macrocarpar 
Gupressus goveniana 
Cones 
From 6-12 lines in diame- 
From 6-12 lines in diame- 
ter. The largest 14 lines 
ter; globose; conditioned 
long; size conditioned as 
as above. 
above. 
• n r 
Seeds 
Roughish, varying in color 
Roughish; maroon, brown 
dark brown to black. 
to black. 
Maturity 
Fruiting early; at the age 
Fruiting very early ; at the 
of 3 or 4 years. 
age of 3 or 4 years. 
I have presented this field-study of these two most interesting forms 
for two reasons. First; both species are evidently remnantal; they 
have seen probably better days and had once much greater prominence 
in the forests of this western world. They are very closely related, 
have somewhere a common history, and the minor form might almost 
be regarded as a starved, depauperate shadow of the larger. At any 
rate, differences in habitat and environment are such as might account 
for all the morphological and physiological distinctions noted. How- 
ever, the adaptation to environment seems now undoubtedly established, 
C. macrocarpa, widely transplanted though it he, does not endure hard- 
ship, especially when it comes in the form of heat and drought, as in 
the great valley of California, where in summer the wide plains fairly 
glow with heat. Whether the lesser species could stand prosperity has 
not been tested; perhaps it might; some Californian should find out. 
Second: An interesting parallel may be drawn by students of our 
prairie flora, if the case of our common Bur oak, Q. macrocarpa Mx., 
be well considered. In passing across Iowa, from the Mississippi to the 
Missouri, we have a change in form and habit of this well-marked species 
not unlike that I have attempted to bring out by portraying these two 
old conifers. If one should compare (contrast) the great forest trees 
with their enormous over-cup acorns until lately to be seen along the 
Mississippi bottoms, near Muscatine, with the mere shrubs, one foot 
high or less, on the xerophytic hills about Sioux City, he would’ certainly 
regard the two forms as presenting species , distinct, well defined, if not 
remote. And yet, as we all know, between the one locality and the 
other, Q. macrocarpa of the east, passes through all sorts of phases 
intermediate, winding up in a distance of less than four hundred miles 
in the pygmean form bearing its acorns within a few inches of the 
ground. . | ■ Vj ; . . 
