44 The'^Plant World. 



shown by the admirable and exhaustive studies of Scandan av- 

 ian students who have conclusively demonstrated a considerable 

 northward post-glacial extension, and subsequent retreat of the 

 existing flora. The accompanying sketch map (Fig. 1) shows 

 the Pleistocene stations for the Cypress in the United States and 

 does not include large numbers of buried swamp-deposits in 

 which the presence of the Cypress has not been conclusively 

 demonstrated although the probability of such occurrences is 

 strong. These occurrences may be profitably compared with 

 the present range of the Bald Cypress, shown on the map. That 

 the Cypress is still retreating southward is shown by numerous 

 comparatively recent remains of stumps and knees from numer- 

 ous localities north of the present range of the species. 



Little has been said in the foregoing paragraphs of the 

 modern tree, either of its utility or beauty, although all have been 

 impressed since pre-Re volution ary days, when the traveler 

 Bartram described it as: "in the first order of North American 

 trees. Its majestic stature is surprising. On approaching it 

 we are struck with a kind of awe at beholding the stateliness of 

 its trunk. * * * The delicacy of its color and the texture 

 of its leaves exceed everything in vegetation. * * * 

 Prodigious butresses branch from the trunk on every side, each 

 of which terminate underground in a very large, strong serpen- 

 tine root, which strikes off and branches every way just under 

 the surface of the earth, and from these roots grow woody cones, 

 called Cypress knees, four, five and six feet high, and from six 

 to eighteen inches and two teet in diameter at the base." 



Its remarkably expanded butt and enormously developed 

 "knees" have served to impart to it a weirdness, often enhanced 

 bv the shroud of Spanish moss, that would have amply justified 

 a Druiaical or similar cult had primitive America only befen in- 

 habited by a race which had progressed beyond the stone age 

 of culture. 



One of the characteristics of the modern tree which impresses 

 the observer is its great vitality, a feature noticed by Latrobe 

 who, in his description of the Cape Henry sand dunes in 1799, 

 mentions that the Cypress retains life to the last; in other words, 

 until completely buried. One may st^ll see green branches 

 from the tops of trees not wholly buried, although they have 

 been partially buried for a generation or more, since these dunes 



