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By EDWARD LEE GREENE. CUPRESSUS ARIZONICA.—A tall, conical tree 40-70 feet high, with horizontal branches; trunk 2-4 feet in diameter, covered with a dark red fibrous bark; bark of the branches flaking off in thin plates and leaving a smooth surface; branchlets stout and rather rigid, sharply quadrangular; leaves closely imbricated, very glaucous, neither pitted nor glandular; their margins entire, or, in the very oldest, denticulate; cones crowded on short, stout peduncles, globose, about an inch in diameter, of 6-8 very thick, and strongly bossed scales; seeds numerous, 2 lines or more wide. This fine cypress was discovered by the writer on the mountains back of Clifton, in the extreme eastern part of Arizona, on the first day of September, 1880. Abundant specimens of wood, and fruiting branches were secured, and soon distributed under the above name, to the principal herbaria of this country, and several in Europe, including that of the Royal Gardens at Kew. In the course of the year and a half that has since intervened, the species has been collected at different points in the southern and eastern portions of the same Territory, by Messrs. Rusby, Pringle and Lemmon. The tree is peculiar in that, while the bark of its trunk is as shreddy as that of any cedar, that of the branches, even the larger ones, is scaly, falling off in thin plates. The wood is light and straight grained, splitting with the utmost readiness; that of the heart being dark red, resembling that of red cedar. The branchlets bear so strong a likeness to those of Juniperus pachyphloea, Torr., that without fruit they are hardly distinguishable. It is the principal tree of the mountains which lie to the north of Mt. Graham, and forms dense forests, particularly on the northward slopes. |