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The Cypresses of Monterey

Staunch derelicts adrift on Time's wide sea,

Undaunted exiles from an age pristine!

Your loneliness in tortured limb we see;

Your courage in your crown of living green;

Your strength unyielding, in your grappling knee;

Your patience in the calmness of your mien.

Enrapt, you stand in mighty reverie,

While centuries come and go, unheard, unseen.

--Anna Botsford Comstock.

The Arizona Cypress (C. Arizonica, Greene) extends as a small or medium-sized tree of pyramidal habit from Arizona into California and Mexico. Forests of it are found at 5,000 to 6,000 feet elevation. The trees are occasionally broad with flattened tops. The leaves are pale green, and a glaucous bloom covers them after the first year of growth. The cones are also glaucous, and each thick scale has a sharp beak at the top. The tree is rare in cultivation, and as yet has no importance in the lumber trade.

The Cypress (C. Goveniana, Gord.), of central and southern California coast mountains, has dark green foliage on spreading branches that form a loose, open head. The tree is not at all rare within its range, but varies from a shrub to a tree 50 feet high. Horticultural forms, usually dwarfs, are cultivated.

The Macnab Cypress (C. Macnabiana, Murr.), also a Californian limited to the northern mountainous part of the state, is a small spreading tree, rarely 30 feet high, often with many stems. Its leaves are dark green, sometimes whitened by a glaucous bloom always distinctly set with glands. In cultivation the tree is the hardiest of the genus, although restricted to California and the Gulf States in this country and to the warmer parts of Europe.

The classic Cypress (C. sempervirens, Linn.) of the Old World gives distinction to Italian gardens to-day, and as the symbol of mourning has been planted in the burial places of Europe from the earliest recorded times. It is mentioned more frequently in classical literature than any other conifer.* Its sombre foliage was the badge of grief. It is one of the trees noted for longevity; its age limit is estimated at 3,000 years. Not hardy in our Northern States, it is cultivated in the South and in California. The species submits to severe pruning, so it is often planted for hedges.