Sitka Cypress Tree
The Sitka Cypress (C. Nootkatensis, Lamb.) grows over 100 feet tall, with a trunk over 5 feet through, near the coast of Alaska. Its yellow branchlets lighten the gloom of its blue-green foliage, and the treetop is warmed by the ruddy colour of the oldest leaves, which remain for some time on the tree after they are dead. The range of the species is from Alaska into Oregon, climbing the mountains to the altitude of 3,000 feet, where the tree is reduced to a shrub.The hard wood is very close of texture and pale yellow. I t is durable and pleasantly aromatic. Carpenters employ it in the interior finishing of houses. It is made into furniture, and used in boat building.
Horticultural forms of this species are astonishingly numerous. Sudworth gives sixty-eight varieties in his "Check List."