Taxonomic history:
   1753: Linnaeus described this species as Cupressus thyoides in Species Plantarum, edition 1, p. 1003.
   1841: Édouard Spach created the genus Chamaecyparis (Chamécyparis in his original French text) in volume 11 (page 329) of his Histoire Naturelle des Végétaux: Phanérogames.
   1888: Nathaniel Lord Britton, E. E. Sterns, and Justus F. Poggenburg (usually abbreviated as B.S.P.) “revised and corrected” the nomenclature of the Preliminary Catalogue of Anthophyta and Pteridophyta reported as growing spontaneously within one hundred miles of New York City, and they moved Cupressus thyoides to the genus Chamaecyparis (page 71).
   today: The current name for this species is Chamaecyparis thyoides (L.) B.S.P.

original Latin description
Cupressus foliis imbricatis, frondibus ancipitibus.

English translation
Cupressus with leaves imbricate [and] branchlets two-sided.

English translation with commentary

Cupressus	Cupressus
with leaves	foliis - ablative plural of second declension neuter noun folium, -i
imbricate	imbricatis - ablative plural neuter of group A adjective imbricatus, -a, -um; modifies foliis
[and]	added for smoother reading
with branchlets	frondibus - ablative plural of 3rd declension feminine noun frons, frondis
two-sided. [i.e., planar]	ancipitibus - ablative plural feminine of group B adjective anceps, anceps, anceps; modifies frondibus