Reports of explorations and surveys, to ascertain the most practicable and economical route for a railroad from the Mississippi River to the Pacific Ocean: Vol. 6, Pt. 3

BOTANY.
Francisco, but to be everywhere rather a rare tree. It attains but a moderate size, 50-75
feet in height, and has somewhat the aspect of a Taxodium, or yew, to the foliage of which its
leaves have a marked resemblance. The fruit, from its texture and appearance, has been
compared to a nutmeg, but is too strongly charged with turpentine to be used as a condiment.
Fig. 27.
Fig. 27. A branch, with leaves and fruit of T. Californica, natural size.
Very full analyses of its botanical characters are given by Nuttall and Sir W. Hiooker. It is
said to form a graceful and handsome tree, and, as its nuts have been made to germinate by the
horticulturists of New York, we may soon expect to see it introduced into general cultivation.
CUPRESSUS NUTKATENSIS. The Nootka cypress.
C. NUTKATENSrS, Lamb. Pinus, No. 60.
C. NUTKATENSIS. Hook. Flor. Bor. Amer. 2, p. 165.
THUJA EXCELSA, Bong. Veget. de Sitcha, p. 46.
Description.-A tree of moderate size; branches sub-erect, tetragonal; leaves ovate acuminate,
imbricate in four rows without tubercles; galbules as large as peas, or larger, terminating
the smaller branches; scales umbonate, smooth, or radiately striate.
The only locality in which we met with this tree was on the Cascade Mountain, about latitude
440 north, though I have reason to believe that it will be found at intervals throughout the
Sierra Nevada and the Cascades, in California and Oregon.
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