11. CUPRESSUS L. Cypress.
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 species Cupressus sempervirens L., of southeastern Europe and southwestern Asia, and especially its pyramidal variety, are often planted for ornament in the south Atlantic and Pacific states.
Cupressus is the classical name of the Cypress-tree.
CONSPECTUS OF THE NORTH AMERICAN SPECIES
Leaves dark green. Leaves eglandular or obscurely glandular on the back. Leaves obtusely pointed; cones puberulous, 1′—1½′ in diameter; seeds light chestnut-brown.1. [C. macrocarpa] (G). Leaves acutely pointed; cones ½′—⅔′ in diameter; seeds dark brown or black.2. [C. Goveniana] (G). Leaves glandular-pitted on the back, acute. Cones ⅔′—1′ in diameter; seeds brown, often glaucous.3. [C. Sargentii] (G). Cones ½′—1′ in diameter, often covered with a glaucous bloom; seeds dark chestnut-brown.4. [C. Macnabiana] (G). Leaves pale bluish green. Leaves obtusely pointed, with small gland-pits; bark of the trunk smooth, lustrous, mahogany brown; branches bright red.5. [C. guadaloupensis] (G). Leaves acute, eglandular or occasionally obscurely glandular (in var. glabra conspicuously glandular); bark of the trunk dark brown, separating into long narrow persistent fibres; branchlets gray.6. [C. arizonica] (H).
1. [Cupressus macrocarpa] Gord. Monterey Cypress.
Leaves dark green, bluntly pointed, eglandular, and ¼′—½′ long; deciduous at the end of three or four years. Flowers opening late in February or early in March, yellow. Fruit clustered 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; seeds about 20 under each fertile scale, angled, light chestnut-brown, about 1/16′ 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. Bark ¾′—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. Wood heavy, 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.
2. [Cupressus Goveniana] Gord.
Cupressus pygmæa Sarg.
Leaves acutely pointed, dark green. Flowers: male obscurely 4-angled, with broadly ovate peltate connectives: female with 6—10 ovate pointed scales. Fruit usually sessile, subglobose ¼′—⅞′ in diameter, its scales terminating in small bosses; seeds compressed, black, or dark brown, papillose, about ⅛′ long.
A tree rarely 75° high, with a tall trunk up to 2°10′ in diameter, often not more than 25° high, more often a shrub with numerous stems 1°—15° tall, ascending branches, and comparatively stout bright reddish brown branchlets, becoming purple and ultimately dark reddish brown; often beginning to produce fertile cones when only 1° or 2° tall. Bark bright reddish brown, about ¼′ thick, and divided by shallow fissures into flat ridges separating on the surface into long thread-like scales. Wood soft, very coarse-grained, pale reddish brown.
Distribution. California: pine barrens on the western slope of Point Pinos Ridge two miles west of Monterey, and on alkaline soil in a narrow belt beginning about three quarters of a mile from the shore of Mendocino County and extending inland for three or four miles from Ten Mile Run on the north to the Navarro River on the south; arborescent and also of its smallest size only in this northern station.
3. [Cupressus Sargentii] Jeps. Sargent’s Cypress.
Cupressus Goveniana Engelm., not Gord. (Silva N. Am. x. 107 t. 527)
Leaves obscurely glandular or without glands, dark green, pungently aromatic, 1/16′—⅛′ long, turning bright red-brown in drying and falling at the end of three or four years; on young plants ⅛′—¼′ long. Flowers: male with thin slightly erose connectives: female of 6 or 8 acute slightly spreading scales. Fruit often in crowded clusters, short-stalked, subglobose, ½′—1′ in diameter, reddish brown or purple, lustrous, puberulous, its 6 or 8 scales with broadly ovoid generally rounded and flattened and rarely short-obconic bosses; seeds brown, lustrous, often glaucous, with an acute margin, ⅙′ long, about 20 under each fertile scale.
A tree, shrub, or small bushy tree rarely more than 15° or 16° high, with a short trunk 2° in diameter, slender erect or spreading branches forming a handsome open head, and thin branchlets covered with close smooth bark, at first orange-colored, becoming bright reddish brown, and ultimately purple or dark brown. Bark ¼′—½′ thick, dark grayish brown, irregularly divided into narrow ridges covered with thin persistent oblong scales. Wood light, soft, not strong, light brown, with thick nearly white sapwood.
Distribution. California: dry mountain slopes usually between altitudes of 1300° and 2300° in few widely isolated stations, Red Mountain, Mendocino County, to Mt. Tamalpais, Marin County; Cedar Mountain, Alameda County; Santa Cruz Mountains, Santa Cruz County; Santa Lucia Mountains, Monterey County; often covering great areas on the hills of Marin County with dense thickets only a few feet high.
Occasionally cultivated as C. Goveniana in western and southern Europe as an ornamental tree.
4. [Cupressus Macnabiana] A. Murr. Cypress.
Cupressus Bakeri Jeps.
Cupressus nevadensis Abrams.
Leaves acute or rounded at apex, rounded and conspicuously glandular on the back, deep green, often slightly glaucous, usually not more than 1/16′ long. Flowers in March and April, male nearly cylindric, obtuse, with broadly ovate rounded connectives: female subglobose, with broadly ovate scales short-pointed and rounded at apex. Fruit oblong, subsessile or raised on a slender stalk, ½′—1′ long, dark reddish brown more or less covered with a glaucous bloom, slightly puberulous, especially along the margins of the 6 or rarely 8 scales, their prominent bosses thin and recurved on the lower scales, and much thickened, conical, and more or less incurved on the upper scales; seeds dark chestnut-brown, usually rather less than 1/16′ long, with narrow wings.
A tree in Oregon occasionally 80° high with a tall trunk sometimes 3½° in diameter, southward rarely more than 30° high, with a short trunk 12′—15′ in diameter, slender branches covered with close smooth compact bark, bright purple after the falling of the leaves, soon becoming dark brown; more often a shrub with numerous stems 6°—12° tall forming a broad open irregular head. Bark thin, dark reddish brown, broken into brown flat ridges, and separating on the surface into elongated thin slightly attached long-persistent scales. Wood light, soft, very close-grained.
Distribution. Rare and local, usually in small groves; dry ridges of Mount Steve and adjacent mountains up to altitudes of 5300°, Josephine County, southwestern Oregon; California; on lava beds, southeastern Siskiyou and southwestern Mono Counties (C. Bakeri); dry hills and low slopes, Mt. Ætna, in central Napa County; through Lake County to Red Mountain on the east side of Ukiah Valley, Mendocino County; in Trinity County between Shasta and Whiskeytown; and on the Sierra Nevada (Red Hill, Piute Mountains near Bodfish) Kern County, at an altitude of 5000° (C. nevadensis).
Occasionally cultivated in western and southern Europe as an ornamental tree.
5. [Cupressus guadaloupensis] S. Wats. Tecate Cypress.
Leaves acute, rounded and minutely glandular-pitted or eglandular on the back, light blue-green, about 1/16′ long. Fruit on stout stems ¼′—⅓′ in length, subglobose to short-oblong, ¾′—1¼′ in diameter, puberulous especially along the margins of the six or eight scales, with prominent flattened or conic acute often incurved bosses; seeds about 70 under each scale, short-oblong, nearly square, light chestnut-brown up to ¼′ in length, with a narrow wing.
A tree in California sometimes 20°—25° in height, with a short slender or on exposed mountain slopes a trunk occasionally 2° or 3° in diameter, few short spreading or ascending branches forming an open head, and light red-brown lustrous branchlets becoming purplish. Bark smooth, lustrous, without resin or fibres, mahogany brown, the thin scales in falling leaving pale marks.
Distribution. San Diego County, California, rare and local; valley of the San Luis Rey River between Valley Centre and Pala; at altitudes between 1100° and 4000° in the gulches and on the summit of Mt. Tecate on the border between the United States and Lower California; on a mountain below Descanso and Pine Valley; in Cedar Cañon between El-nido and Dulzura; in Lower California on San Pedro Mártir Mountain and Guadaloupe Island. The insular form is a larger tree often with larger gland-pits on the leaves, and now often cultivated in California, western Europe, and in other countries with temperate climates.
6. [Cupressus arizonica] Greene. Cypress.
Leaves obtusely pointed, rounded, eglandular or rarely glandular-pitted on the back, pale green, 1/16′ long, dying and turning red-brown in their second season, generally falling four years later. Flowers: male oblong, obtuse, their 6 or 8 stamens with broadly ovate acute yellow connectives slightly erose on the margins: female not seen. Fruit on stout pedicels ¼′—½′ in length, subglobose, rather longer than broad, wrinkled, dark red-brown and covered with a glaucous bloom, the six or eight scales with stout flattened incurved prominent bosses; seeds oblong to nearly triangular, dark red-brown, 1/16′—⅛′ long with a thin narrow wing.
A conical tree 40°—70° high with a trunk 2°—4° in diameter, and stout spreading branches covered with bark separating into thin plates, leaving a smooth red surface, and branchlets dark gray after the leaves fall. Bark on young trunks separating into large irregular curling thin scales, on old trees becoming dark red-brown and fibrous.
Distribution. Mountains above Clifton, Greenlee County, eastern Arizona; on the San Francisco Mountains, Socorro County, and San Luis Mountains, Grant County, western New Mexico; and in Chihuahua. Passing into
Cupressus arizonica var. bonita Lemm.
Cupressus glabra Sudw.
Differing from the type in the prominent oblong or circular glandular depressions on the backs of the leaves.
A tree 30°—70° high, with a trunk 18′—24′ or rarely 5° in diameter, erect branches forming a rather compact conical head. Bark of the trunk and large branches thin, smooth, dark reddish brown, separating into small curled scale-like plates, becoming on old trees dark gray and fibrous. Wood heavy, hard, pale straw color with lighter-colored sapwood, durable in contact with the ground, somewhat used for fence-posts, corral-piles, mine-timbers and in log cabins.
Distribution. Gravelly slopes and moist gulches often in groups of considerable size at altitudes between 4000° and 7000°, Arizona; near Camp Verde, Tonto Basin; Natural Bridge, Payson, etc.; on the Chiracahua Mountains (J. W. Toumey, July, 1894); on the Santa Rita and Santa Catalina Mountains, and in Oak Creek Cañon twenty miles south of Flagstaff (P. Lowell, June, 1911).
Now often cultivated in western Europe as C. arizonica.