Fig. 58
Leavesmarked on the upper surface with a deep sharply defined groove, rounded and obscurely ribbed on the lower surface, stomatiferous above and below, dark or light blue-green, often very glaucous during their first season, crowded in several rows, those on the lower side of the branch two-ranked by the twisting of their bases, the others crowded, strongly incurved, with the points erect or pointing away from the end of the branch, on young plants and on the lower sterile branches of old trees flat, rounded, usually slightly notched at apex, 1′—1½′ long, about1/16′ wide, on fertile branches much thickened and almost equally 4-sided, acuminate, with long rigid callous tips, ½′—¾′ long, on leading shoots flat, gradually narrowed from the base, acuminate, with long rigid points, about 1′ long.Flowers:male reddish purple; female often scattered over the upper part of the tree, with broad rounded scales much shorter than their nearly orbicular bracts erose on the margins and contracted above into slender elongated strongly reflexed tips.Fruitoblong-cylindric, slightly narrowed but full and rounded at apex, 4′—5′ long, purple or olive-brown, pubescent, with scales about one third wider than long, gradually narrowed from the rounded apex to the base, or full at the sides, rounded and denticulate above the middle and sharply contracted and wedge-shaped below, nearly or entirely covered by their strongly reflexed pale green spatulate bracts full and rounded above, fimbriate on the margins, with broad midribs produced into short broad flattened points;seeds½′ long, pale reddish brown, about as long as their wings, gradually narrowed from below to the nearly truncate slightly rounded apex.
A tree, in old age with a comparatively broad somewhat rounded head, usually 150°—200° and occasionally 250° high, with a trunk 6°—8° in diameter, short rigid branches, short stout remote lateral branches standing out at right angles, and slender reddish brown branchletspuberulous for four or five years and generally pointing forward.Winter-budsovoid-oblong, red-brown, about ⅛′ long.Barkbecoming on old trunks 1′—2′ thick, bright red-brown, and deeply divided into broad flat ridges irregularly broken by cross fissures and covered with thick closely appressed scales.Woodlight, hard, strong, rather close-grained, pale brown streaked with red, with darker colored sapwood; occasionally manufactured into lumber and used under the name of larch for the interior finish of buildings and for packing-cases.
Distribution.Slopes of Mt. Baker in northern Washington and southward to the valley of the Mackenzie River, Oregon, and the Siskiyou Mountains, California, at elevations of from 2000°—5000° above the sea; most abundant and often forming extensive forests on the Cascade Mountains of Washington; less abundant and of smaller size on the eastern and northern slopes of these mountains. In Oregon sometimes called Larch.
Often planted in western and central Europe as an ornamental tree, and in the eastern states hardy in sheltered positions as far north as Massachusetts.
Fig. 59
Leavesalmost equally 4-sided, ribbed above and below, with 6—8 rows of stomata on each of the 4 sides, pale and very glaucous during their first season, later becoming blue-green, persistent usually for about ten years; on young plants and lower branches oblanceolate, somewhat flattened, rounded, bluntly pointed, ¾′—1½′ long,1/16′ wide, those on the lower side of the branch spreading in 2 nearly horizontal ranks by the twist at their base, on upper, especially on fertile branches, much thickened, with more prominentmidribs, acute, with short callous tips, ⅓′ long on the upper side of the branch to 1¼′ long on the lower side, crowded, erect, strongly incurved, completely hiding the upper side of the branch, on leading shoots ¾′ long, erect and acuminate, with long rigid points pressed against the stem.Flowers:male dark reddish purple; female with rounded scales much shorter than their oblong pale green bracts terminating in elongated slender tips more or less tinged with red.Fruitoblong-cylindric, slightly narrowed to the rounded, truncate, or retuse apex, dark purplish brown, puberulous, from 6′—9′ long, with scales often 1½′ wide and about two thirds as wide as long, gradually narrowed to the cordate base, somewhat longer or often two thirds as long as their spatulate acute or acuminate bracts slightly serrulate above the middle and often sharply contracted and then enlarged toward the base; seeds dark reddish brown, ¾′ long, about as wide as their lustrous rose-colored obovate cuneate wings nearly truncate and often ¾′ wide at apex.
A tree, in old age occasionally somewhat round-topped, frequently 200° high, with a trunk 8°—10° in diameter and often naked for half the height of the tree, comparatively short small branches, the upper somewhat ascending, the lower pendulous, and stout light yellow-green branchlets pointing forward, slightly puberulous during their first season, becoming light red-brown and lustrous and ultimately gray or silvery white.Winter-budsovoid, acute, ¼′⅓′ long, their bright chestnut-brown scales with prominent midribs produced into short tips.Barkbecoming 4′—6′ thick near the ground, deeply divided into broad rounded ridges broken by cross fissures and covered by dark red-brown scales.Woodlight, soft, not strong, comparatively durable, light red-brown, with thick somewhat darker sapwood; largely used for fuel, and in California occasionally manufactured into coarse lumber employed in the construction of cheap buildings and for packing-cases.
Distribution.Cascade Mountains of southern Oregon, southward over the mountain ranges of northern California (summits of the Trinity and Salmon Mountains and on the inner north coast ranges), and along the western slope of the Sierra Nevada to the divide between White and Kern Rivers; common in southern Oregon at elevations between 5000° and 7000° above the sea, forming sometimes nearly pure forests; very abundant on the Sierra Nevada, and the principal tree in the forest belt at elevations between 6000° and 9000°; ascending towards the southern extremity of its range to over 10,000°. Small stunted trees from the neighborhood of Meadow Lake, Sierra County, California, with yellowish cones have been described as var.xancocarpaLemm.
Often planted as an ornamental tree in western and central Europe, and sometimes hardy in the United States as far north as eastern Massachusetts.
A distinct form is
Fig. 60
On the mountains of southern Oregon and at high elevations on those of northern California, and on the southern Sierra Nevada, occurs this form distinguished only by thelonger rounded or obtusely pointed (not acute) bright yellow bracts which sometimes cover nearly half their scales.
Abies bracteataD. Don.
Fig. 61
Leavesthin, flat, rigid, linear or linear-lanceolate, gradually or abruptly narrowed toward the base, often falcate, especially on fertile branches, acuminate, with long slender callous tips, dark yellow-green, lustrous and slightly rounded on the upper surface marked below the middle with an obscure groove, silvery white or on old leaves pale on the lower surface, with bands of 8—10 rows of stomata between the broad midrib and the thickened strongly revolute margins, 2-ranked from the conspicuous twist near their base and spreading at nearly right angles to the branch, or pointing forward on upper fertile branches, 1½′—2¼′ long, on leading shoots standing out at almost right angles, rounded on the upper surface, more or less incurved above the middle, 1½′—1¾′ long, about ⅛′ wide.Flowers:male produced in great numbers near the base of the branchlets on branches from the middle of the tree upward, pale yellow; female near the ends of the branchlets of the upper branches only, with oblong scales rounded above and nearly as long as their cuneate obcordate yellow-green bracts ending in slender elongated awns.Fruiton stout peduncles sometimes ½′ long, oval or subcylindric, full and rounded at apex, glabrous, pale purple-brown, 3′—4′ long, with thin scales strongly incurved above, obtusely short-pointed at apex, obscurely denticulate on the thin margins, about one third longer than their oblong-obovate obcordate pale yellow-brown bracts terminating in flat rigid tips 1′—1¾′ long, above the middle of the cone pointing toward its apex and often closely appressed to its sides, below the middle spreading toward its base and frequently much recurved, firmly attached to the cone-scales and deciduous with them from the thick conical sharp-pointed axis of the cone;seedsdark red-brown, about ⅜′ long, and nearly as long as their oblong-obovate pale reddish brown lustrous wings rounded at the apex.
A tree, 100°—150° high, with a trunk sometimes 3° in diameter, comparatively short slender usually pendulous branches furnished with long sinuous rather remote lateral branches sparsely clothed with foliage, forming a broad-based pyramid abruptly narrowed 15°—20° from the top of the tree into a thin spire-like head, and stout glabrous light reddish brown branchlets covered at first with a glaucous bloom.Winter-budsovoid, acute, ¾′—1′ long, ¼′—⅓′ thick, with very thin, loosely imbricated, pale chestnut-brown, acute, boat-shaped scales.Barkbecoming near the base of the tree ½′—¾′ thick, light reddish brown, slightlyand irregularly fissured and broken into thick closely appressed scales.Woodheavy, not hard, coarse-grained, light brown tinged with yellow, with paler sapwood.
Distribution.In the moist bottoms of cañons and on dry rocky summits, usually at elevations of about 3000° above the sea on both slopes of the outer western ridge of the Santa Lucia Mountains, Monterey County, California.
Occasionally and successfully grown as an ornamental tree in the milder parts of Great Britain and in northern Italy; not hardy in the eastern United States.
Resinous aromatic trees, with tall massive lobed trunks, thick bark of 2 layers, the outer composed of fibrous scales, the inner thin, close and firm, soft, durable, straight-grained red heartwood, thin nearly white sapwood, short stout horizontal branches, terete lateral branchlets deciduous in the autumn, and scaly or naked buds. Leaves ovate-lanceolate or linear and spreading in 2 ranks especially on young trees and branches, or linear, acute, compressed, keeled on the back and closely appressed or spreading at apex, the two forms appearing sometimes on the same branch or on different branches of the same tree. Flowers minute, solitary, monœcious, appearing in early spring from buds formed the previous autumn, the male terminal in the axils of upper leaves, oblong or ovoid, surrounded by an involucre of numerous imbricated ovate, acute, and apiculate bracts, with numerous spirally disposed filaments dilated into ovoid acute subpeltate denticulate connectives bearing on their inner face 2—5 pendulous globose 2-valved anther-cells; the female terminal, ovoid or oblong, composed of numerous spirally imbricated ovate scales abruptly keeled on the back, the keels produced into short or elongated points closely adnate to the short ovule-bearing scales rounded above and bearing below their upper margin in 2 rows 5—7 ovules at first erect, becoming reversed. Fruit an ovoid or short-oblong pendulous cone maturing during the first or second season, persistent after the escape of the seeds, its scales formed by the enlargement of the united flower and ovuliferous scales, becoming woody, bearing large deciduous resin-glands, gradually enlarged upward and widening at the apex into a narrow thickened oblong disk transversely depressed through the middle and sometimes tipped with a small point. Seeds 5—7 under each scale, oblong-ovoid, compressed; seed-coat membranaceous, produced into broad thin lateral wings; cotyledons 4—6, longer than the inferior radicle.
Sequoia, widely scattered with several species over the northern hemisphere during the cretaceous and tertiary epochs, is now confined to the coast of Oregon and California and the mountains of California, where two species exist.
The name of the genus is formed from Sequoiah, the inventor of the Cherokee alphabet.
Fig. 62
Leavesof secondary branches and of lower branches of young trees lanceolate, more or less falcate, acute or acuminate and usually tipped with slender rigid points, slightly thickened on the revolute margins, decurrent at the base, spreading in 2 ranks by a half-turn at their base, ¼′—½′ long, about ⅛′ wide, obscurely keeled and marked above by 2 narrow bands of stomata, glaucous and stomatiferous below on each side of their conspicuous midrib, on leading shoots disposed in many ranks, more or less spreading or appressed, ovate or ovate-oblong, incurved at the rounded apiculate apex, thickened, rounded, and stomatiferous on the lower surface, concave, prominently keeled and covered with stomataon the upper surface, usually about ¼′ long; dying and turning reddish brown at least two years before falling.Flowersopening in December or January; male oblong, obtuse; female with about 20 broadly ovate acute scales tipped with elongated and incurved or short points.Fruitripening in October, oblong, ¾′—1′ long, ½′ broad, its scales gradually enlarged from slender stipes abruptly dilated above into disks penetrated by deep narrow grooves, and usually without tips;seedsabout1/16′ long, light brown, with wings as broad as their body.
A tree, from 200°—340° high, with a slightly tapering and irregularly lobed trunk usually free of branches for 75°—100°, usually 10°—15°, rarely 28° in diameter at the much buttressed base, slender branches, clothed with branchlets spreading in 2 ranks and forming while the tree is young an open narrow pyramid, on old trees becoming stout and horizontal, and forming a narrow rather compact and very irregular head remarkably small in proportion to the height and size of the trunk, and slender leading branchlets covered at the end of three or four years after the leaves fall with cinnamon-brown scaly bark; when cut producing from the stump numerous vigorous long-lived shoots.Budswith numerous loosely imbricated ovate acute scales persistent on the base of the branchlet.Bark6′—12′ thick, divided into rounded ridges and separated on the surface into long narrow dark brown fibrous scales often broken transversely and in falling disclosing the bright cinnamon-red inner bark.Woodlight, soft, not strong, close-grained, easily split and worked, very durable in contact with the soil, clear light red; largely manufactured into lumber and used for shingles, fence-posts, railway-ties, wine-butts, and in buildings.
Distribution.Valley of the Chetco River, Oregon, 8 miles north of the California state line, southward near the coast to Monterey County, California; rarely found more than twenty or thirty miles from the coast, or beyond the influence of the ocean fogs, or over 3000° above the sea-level; often forming in northern California pure forests occupying the sides of ravines and the banks of streams; southward growing usually in small groves scattered among other trees; most abundant and of its largest size north of Cape Mendocino.
Often cultivated as an ornamental tree in the temperate countries of Europe, and occasionally in the southeastern United States.
Sequoia WellingtoniaSeem.
Fig. 63
Leavesovate and acuminate, or lanceolate, rounded and thickened on the lower surface, concave on the upper surface, marked by bands of stomata on both sides of the obscure midrib, rigid, sharp-pointed, decurrent below, spreading or closely appressed above the middle, ⅛′—¼′ or on leading shoots ½′ long.Flowersopening in late winter and early spring; male in great profusion over the whole tree, oblong-ovoid, with ovate acute or acuminate connectives; female with 25—40 pale yellow scales slightly keeled on the back and graduallynarrowed into long slender points.Fruitmaturing in the second year, ovoid-oblong, 2′—3½′ long, 1½′—2¼′ wide, dark reddish brown, the scales gradually thickened upward from the base to the slightly dilated apex, ¾′—1¼′ long, and ¼′—½′ wide, deeply pitted in the middle, often furnished with an elongated reflexed tip and on the upper side near the base with two or three large deciduous resin-glands;seedslinear-lanceolate, compressed, ⅛′—¼′ long, light brown, surrounded by laterally united wings broader than the body of the seed, apiculate at the apex, often very unequal.
A tree, at maturity usually about 275° high, with a trunk 20° in diameter near the ground, occasionally becoming 320° tall, with a trunk 35° in diameter, much enlarged and buttressed at base, fluted with broad low rounded ridges, in old age naked often for 150° with short thick horizontal branches, slender leading branchlets becoming after the disappearance of the leaves reddish brown more or less tinged with purple and covered with thin close or slightly scaly bark and naked buds.Bark1°—2° thick, divided into rounded lobes 4°—5° wide, corresponding to the lobes of the trunk, separating into loose light cinnamon-red fibrous scales, the outer scales slightly tinged with purple.Woodvery light, soft, not strong, brittle and coarse-grained, turning dark on exposure; manufactured into lumber and used for fencing, in construction, and for shingles.
Distribution.Western slopes of the Sierra Nevada of California, in an interrupted belt at elevations of 5000°—8400° above the level of the sea, from the middle fork of the American River to the head of Deer Creek just south of latitude 36°; north of King’s River in isolated groves, southward forming forests of considerable extent, and best developed on the north fork of the Tule River.
Universally cultivated as an ornamental tree in all the countries of western and southern Europe; and occasionally in the middle eastern United States.
Resinous trees, with furrowed scaly bark, light brown durable heartwood, thin white sapwood, erect ultimately spreading branches, deciduous usually 2-ranked lateral branchlets, scaly globose buds, and stout horizontal roots often producing erect woody projections (knees). Leaves spirally disposed, pale and marked with stomata below on both sides of the obscure midrib, dark green above, linear-lanceolate, spreading in 2 ranks, or scale-like and appressed on lateral branchlets, the two forms appearing on the same or on different branches of the same tree or on separate trees, deciduous. Flowers unisexual, from buds formed the previous year; male in the axils of scale-like bracts in long terminal drooping panicles, with 6—8 stamens opposite in 2 ranks, their filaments abruptly enlargedinto broadly ovate peltate yellow connectives bearing on their inner face in 2 rows 4—9 2-valved pendulous anther-cells; female scattered near the ends of the branches of the previous year, subglobose, composed of numerous ovate spirally arranged long-pointed scales, adnate below to the thickened fleshy ovuliferous scales bearing at their base 2 erect bottle-shaped ovules. Fruit a globose or obovoid short-stalked woody cone maturing the first year and persistent after the escape of the seeds, formed from the enlargement and union of the flower and ovule-bearing scales abruptly dilated from slender stipes into irregularly 4-sided disks often mucronate at maturity, bearing on the inner face, especially on the stipes, large dark glands filled with blood-red fragrant liquid resin. Seeds in pairs under each scale, attached laterally to the stipes, erect, unequally 3-angled; seed-coat light brown and lustrous, thick, coriaceous or corky, produced into 3 thick unequal lateral wings and below into a slender elongated point; cotyledons 4—9, shorter than the superior radicle.
Taxodium, widely distributed through North America and Europe in Miocene and Pliocene times, is now confined to the southern United States and Mexico. Two species are distinguished.
The generic name, fromτάξοςandεῖδος, indicates a resemblance of the leaves to those of the Yew-tree.
Fig. 64
Leaveson distichously spreading branchlets, apiculate, ½′—¾′ long, about1/12′ wide, light bright yellow-green or occasionally silvery white below; or on the form with pendulous compressed branchlets long-pointed, keeled and stomatiferous below, concave above more or less spreading at the free apex, about ½′ long; in the autumn turning with the branchlets dull orange-brown before falling.Flowers:panicles of staminate flowers 4′—5′ long, 1½′—2′ wide, with slender red-brown stems, obovoid flower-buds nearly ⅛′ long, pale silvery-gray during winter and purple when the flowers expand in the spring.Fruitusually produced in pairs at the end of the branch or irregularly scattered along it for several inches, nearly globose or obovoid, rugose, about 1′ in diameter, the scales generally destitute of tips; seeds with wings nearly ¼′ long, ⅛′ wide.
A tree, with a tall lobed gradually tapering trunk, rarely 12° and generally 4°—5° in diameter above the abruptly enlarged strongly buttressed usually hollow base, occasionally 150° tall, in youth pyramidal, with slender branches often becoming elongated and slightly pendulous, in old age spreading out into a broad low rounded crown often 100° across, and slender branchlets light green when they first appear, light red-brown and rather lustrousduring their first winter, becoming darker the following year, the lateral branchlets deciduous, 3′—4′ long, spreading at right angles to the branch, or in the form with acicular leaves pendulous or erect and often 6′ long.Bark1′—2′ thick, light cinnamon-red and divided by shallow fissures into broad flat ridges separating on the surface into long thin closely appressed fibrous scales.Woodlight, soft, not strong, easily worked, light or dark brown, sometimes nearly black; largely used for construction, railway-ties, posts, fences, and in cooperage.
Distribution.River swamps usually submerged during several months of the year, low wet banks of streams, and the wet depressions of Pine-barrens from southern New Jersey and southern Delaware southward generally near the coast to the Everglade Keys, southern Florida, and through the Gulf-coast region to the valley of Devil River, Texas, through Louisiana to southern Oklahoma, through southern and western Arkansas to southeastern Missouri, and through western and northern Mississippi to Tishomingo County, and in western Tennessee and Kentucky to southern Illinois and southwestern Indiana; most common and of its largest size in the south Atlantic and Gulf states, often covering with nearly pure forests great river swamps. From the coast of North Carolina to southern Florida, southern Alabama and eastern and western Louisiana the form with acicular leaves (Taxodium distichumvar.imbricarium, Sarg.) is not rare as a small tree in Pine-barren ponds and swamps.
Often cultivated as an ornamental tree in the northern United States, and in the countries of temperate Europe, especially the var.imbricarium(asGlyptostrobus sinensisHort. not Endl.).
Tall resinous aromatic trees, with scaly bark, spreading branches, flattened branchlets disposed in one horizontal plane and forming an open 2-ranked spray and often ultimately deciduous, straight-grained durable fragrant wood, and naked buds. Leaves scale-like, in 4 ranks, on leading shoots nearly equally decussate, closely compressed or spreading, dying and becoming woody before falling, on lateral flattened branchlets much compressed, conspicuously keeled, and nearly covering those of the other ranks; on seedling plants linear-lanceolate and spreading. Flowers monœcious, solitary, terminal, the two sexes on different branchlets; male oblong, with 12—16 decussate filaments dilated into broad connectives usually bearing 4 subglobose anther-cells; female oblong, subtended at base by several pairs of leaf-like scales slightly enlarged and persistent under the fruit, composed of 6 acuminate short-pointed scales, those of the upper and middle ranks much larger than those of the lower rank, ovate or oblong, fertile and bearing at the base of a minute accrescent ovuliferous scale 2 erect ovules. Fruit an oblong cone maturing in one season, with subcoriaceous scales marked at the apex by the free thickened mucronulate border of the enlarged flower-scales, those of the lowest pair ovate, thin, reflexed, much shorter than the oblong thicker scales of the second pair widely spreading at maturity; those of the third pair confluent into an erect partition. Seeds in pairs, erect on the base of the scale; seed-coat membranaceous, of 2 layers, produced into thin unequal lateral wings, one narrow, the other broad, oblique, nearly as long as the scale; cotyledons 2, about as long as the superior radicle.
Libocedrus is confined to western North America, western South America, where it is distributed from Chile to Patagonia, New Zealand, New Caledonia, New Guinea, Formosa, and southwestern China. Eight species are distinguished.
Libocedrus, fromλιβάςandCedrus, relates to the resinous character of these trees.
Fig. 65
Leavesoblong-obovate, decurrent and closely adnate on the branchlets except at the callous apex, ⅛′ long on the ultimate lateral branchlets to nearly ½′ long on leading shoots, those of the lateral ranks gradually narrowed and acuminate at apex, keeled and glandularon the back, and nearly covering the flattened obscurely glandular-pitted and abruptly pointed leaves of the inner ranks.Flowersappearing in January on the ends of short lateral branchlets of the previous year; male tingeing the tree with gold during the winter and early spring, ovate, nearly ¼′ long, with nearly orbicular or broadly ovate connectives, rounded, acute or acuminate at the apex and slightly erose on the margins; female subtended by 2—6 pairs of leaf-like scales, with ovate acute light yellow-green slightly spreading scales.Fruitripening and discharging its seeds in the autumn, oblong, ¾′—1′ long, pendulous, light red-brown;seedsoblong-lanceolate, ⅓′—½′ long, semiterete and marked below by a conspicuous pale basal hilum; inner layer of the seed-coat penetrated by elongated resin-chambers, filled with red liquid balsamic resin.
A tree, usually 80°—100° or rarely 150° high, with a tall straight slightly and irregularly lobed trunk tapering from a broad base, 3° or 4° or occasionally 6° or 7° in diameter, slender branches erect at the top of the tree, below sweeping downward in bold curves, forming a narrow open feathery crown becoming in old age irregular in outline by the greater development of a few ultimately upright branches forming secondary stems, and stout branchlets somewhat flattened and light yellow-green at first, turning light red-brown during the summer and ultimately brown more or less tinged with purple, the lateral branchlets much flattened, 4′—6′ long, and usually deciduous at the end of the second or third season.Bark½′—1′ thick, bright cinnamon-red, and broken into irregular ridges covered with closely appressed plate-like scales.Woodlight, soft, close-grained very durable in contact with the soil, light reddish brown, with thin nearly white sapwood; often injured by dry rot but largely used for fencing, laths and shingles, the interior finish of buildings, for furniture, and in the construction of flumes.
Distribution.Singly or in small groves from the southeastern slope of Mt. Hood, Oregon, and southward along the Cascade Mountains; on the high mountains of northern California, on the western slopes of the Sierra Nevada, and in Alpine County on their eastern slope, on the Washoe Mountains, western Nevada, in the California coast ranges from the Santa Lucia Mountains, Monterey County to the high mountains in the southern part of the state; on the Sierra del Pinal and the San Pedro Mártir Mountains, Lower California; most abundant and of its largest size on the Sierra Nevada, of central California at elevations of 5000°—7000° above the sea.
Often cultivated as an ornamental tree in western and central Europe, where it grows rapidly and promises to attain a large size; hardy and occasionally planted in the New England and middle Atlantic states.
Resinous aromatic trees, with thin scaly bark, soft durable straight-grained heartwood, thin nearly white sapwood, slender spreading or erect branches, pyramidal heads, flattened lateral pendulous branchlets disposed in one horizontal plane, forming a flat frond-like spray and often finally deciduous, and naked buds. Leaves decussate, scale-like, acute, stomatiferous on the back, on leading shoots appressed or spreading, rounded or slightly keeled on the back, narrowed into long slender points, on lateral branchlets much compressed in the lateral ranks, prominently keeled and nearly covering those of the other ranks; on seedling plants linear-lanceolate, acuminate, spreading or reflexed. Flowers minute, monœcious, from buds formed the previous autumn, terminal, solitary, the two sexes usually on different branchlets; male ovoid, with 4—6 decussate filaments, enlarged into suborbicular peltate connectives bearing on their inner face 2—4 subglobose anther-cells; female oblong, with 8—12 oblong acute scales opposite in pairs, the ovuliferous scales at their base bearing usually 2 erect bottle-shaped ovules. Fruit an ovoid-oblong erect pale cinnamon-brown cone maturing in one season, its scales thin (thick in one species), leathery, oblong, acute, marked near the apex by the thickened free border of the enlarged flower-scales, those of the 2 or 3 middle ranks largest and fertile. Seeds usually 2, erect on the base of the scale, ovoid, acute, compressed, light chestnut-brown; seed-coat membranaceous, produced except in one species into broad lateral wings distinct at the apex; cotyledons 2, longer than the superior radicle.
Thuja is confined to northeastern and northwestern America, to Japan, Korea and northern China. Five species are recognized. Of the exotic species the ChineseThuja orientalis, L., with many varieties produced by cultivation, is frequently planted in the United States, especially in the south and west, for the decoration of gardens, and is distinguished from the other species by the thick umbonate scales of the cone, only the 4 lower scales being fertile, and by the thick rounded dark red-purple seeds without wings.
Thujais the classical name of some coniferous tree.
Fig. 66
Leaveson leading shoots often nearly ¼′ long, long-pointed and usually conspicuously glandular, on lateral branchlets much flattened, rounded and apiculate at apex, without glands or obscurely glandular-pitted, about ⅛′ long.Flowersopening in April and May, liver color.Fruitripening and discharging its seeds in the early autumn, ⅓′—½′ long;seeds⅛′ long, the thin wings as wide as the body.
A tree, 50°—60° high, with a short often lobed and buttressed trunk, occasionally 6° although usually not more than 2°—3° in diameter, often divided into 2 or 3 stout secondary stems, short horizontal branches soon turning upward and forming a narrow compact pyramidal head, light yellow-green branchlets paler on the lower surface than on the upper, changing with the death of the leaves during their second season to light cinnamon-red, growing darker the following year, gradually becoming terete and abruptly enlarged at the base and finally covered with smooth lustrous dark orange-brown bark, and marked by conspicuous scars left by the falling of the short pendulous lateral branchlets.Bark¼′—⅓′ thick, light red-brown often tinged with orange color and broken by shallow fissures into narrow flat connected ridges separating into elongated more or less persistent scales.Woodlight, soft, brittle, very coarse-grained, durable, fragrant, pale yellow-brown; largely used in Canada and the northern states for fence-posts, rails, railway-ties, and shingles. Fluid extracts and tinctures made from the young branchlets are sometimes used in medicine.
Distribution.Frequently forming nearly impenetrable forests on swampy ground oroften occupying the rocky banks of streams, from Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, northwestward to the mouth of the Saskatchewan, and southward through eastern Canada to southern New Hampshire, central Massachusetts, New York, central Ohio, northern Indiana and Illinois, and Minnesota; occasionally on the high mountains of Virginia, West Virginia, and northeastern Tennessee, and on the mountains of western Burke County, North Carolina, at an altitude of 3000 feet; very common at the north, less abundant and of smaller size southward.
Often cultivated, with many, often dwarf, forms produced in nurseries, as an ornamental tree and for hedges; and in Europe from the middle of the sixteenth century.
Fig. 67
Leaveson leading shoots ovate, long-pointed, often conspicuously glandular on the back, frequently ¼′ long, on lateral branchlets ovate, apiculate, without glands or obscurely glandular-pitted, usually not more than ⅛′ long, mostly persistent 2—5 years.Flowersabout1/12′ long, dark brown.Fruitripening early in the autumn, clustered near the ends of the branches, much reflexed, ½′ long, with thin leathery scales, conspicuously marked near the apex by the free border of the flower-scale furnished with short stout erect or recurved dark mucros;seedsoften 3 under each fertile scale, rather shorter than their usually slightly unequal wings about ¼′ long.
A tree, frequently 200° high, with a broad gradually tapering buttressed base sometimes 15° in diameter at the ground and in old age often separating toward the summit into 2 or 3 erect divisions, short horizontal branches, usually pendulous at the ends, forming a dense narrow pyramidal head, and slender much compressed branchlets often slightly zigzag, light brightyellow-green during their first year, then cinnamon-brown, and after the falling of the leaves, lustrous and dark reddish brown often tinged with purple, the lateral branchlets 5′—6′ long, light green and lustrous on the upper surface, somewhat paler on the lower surface, turning yellow and falling generally at the end of their second season.Barkbright cinnamon-red, ½′—¾′ thick, irregularly divided by narrow shallow fissures into broad ridges rounded on the back and broken on the surface into long narrow rather loose plate-like scales.Woodlight, soft, not strong, brittle, coarse-grained, easily split, dull brown tinged with red; largely used in Washington and Oregon for the interior finish of buildings, doors, sashes, fences, shingles, and in cabinet-making and cooperage. From this tree the Indians of the northwest coast split the planks used in the construction of their lodges, carved the totems which decorate their villages, and hollowed out their great war canoes, and from the fibres of the inner bark made ropes, blankets, and thatch for their cabins.
Distribution.Singly and in small groves on low moist bottom-lands or near the banks of mountain streams, from the sea-level to elevations of 6000° in the interior, from Baranoff Island, Alaska, southward along the coast ranges of British Columbia, western Washington, and Oregon, where it is the most abundant and grows to its largest size, and through the California-coast region to Mendocino County, ranging eastward along many of the interior ranges of British Columbia, northern Washington, Idaho, and Montana to the western slope of the continental divide.
Often cultivated as an ornamental tree in the parks and gardens of western and central Europe where it has grown rapidly and vigorously, and occasionally in the middle and north Atlantic states.
Resinous trees, with bark often separating into long shred-like scales, fragrant durable usually light brown heartwood, pale yellow sapwood, stout erect branches often becoming horizontal in old age, slender 4-angled branchlets, and naked buds. Leaves scale-like, ovate, acute, acuminate, or bluntly pointed at apex, with slender spreading or appressed tips, thickened, rounded, and often glandular on the back, opposite in pairs, becoming brown and woody before falling; on vigorous leading shoots and young plants needle-shaped or linear-lanceolate and spreading. Flowers minute, monœcious, terminal, yellow, the two sexes on separate branchlets; the male oblong, of numerous decussate stamens, with short filaments enlarged into broadly ovate connectives bearing 2—6 globose pendulous anther-cells; female oblong or subglobose, composed of 6—10 thick decussate scales bearing in several rows at the base of the ovuliferous scale numerous erect bottle-shaped ovules. Fruit an erect nearly globose cone maturing in the second year, composed of the much thickened ovule-bearing scales of the flower, abruptly dilated, clavate and flattened at the apex, bearing the remnants of the flower-scales developed into a short central more or less thickened mucro or boss; long-persistent on the branch after the escape of the seeds. Seeds numerous, in several rows, erect, thick, and acutely angled or compressed, with thin lateral wings; seed-coat of 2 layers, the outer thin and membranaceous, the inner thicker and crustaceous; cotyledons 3 or 4, longer than the superior radicle.
Cupressus with ten or twelve species is confined to Pacific North America and Mexico in the New World and to southeastern Europe, southwestern Asia, the Himalayas, and China in the Old World. Of the exotic speciesCupressus sempervirensL., of southeastern Europe and southwestern Asia, and especially its pyramidal variety, are often planted for ornament in the south Atlantic and Pacific states.
Cupressusis the classical name of the Cypress-tree.
Fig. 68
Leavesdark green, bluntly pointed, eglandular, and ¼′—½′ long; deciduous at the end of three or four years.Flowersopening late in February or early in March, yellow.Fruitclustered on short stout stems subglobose, slightly puberulous, 1′—1½′ in diameter, composed of 4 or 6 pairs of scales, with broadly ovoid thickened or occasionally on the upper scales subconical bosses, the scales of the upper and lower pairs being smaller than the others and sterile;seedsabout 20 under each fertile scale, angled, light chestnut-brown, about1/16′ long.
A tree, often 60°—70° high, with a short trunk 2°—3° or exceptionally 5°—6° in diameter, slender erect branches forming a narrow or broad bushy pyramidal head, becoming stout and spreading in old age into a broad flat-topped crown, and stout branchlets covered when the leaves fall at the end of three or four years with thin light or dark reddish brown bark separating into small papery scales.Bark¾′—1′ thick and irregularly divided into broad flat connected ridges separating freely into narrow elongated thick persistent scales, dark red-brown on young stems and upper branches, becoming at last almost white on old and exposed trunks.Woodheavy, hard and strong, very durable, close-grained.
Distribution.Coast of California south of the Bay of Monterey, occupying an area about two miles long and two hundred yards wide from Cypress Point to the shores of Carmel Bay, with a small grove on Point Lobos, the southern boundary of the bay.
Universally cultivated in the Pacific states from Vancouver Island to Lower California, and often used in hedges and for wind-breaks; occasionally planted in the southeastern states; much planted in western and southern Europe, temperate South America, and in Australia and New Zealand.
Cupressus pygmæaSarg.