578 



AMERICAN FORESTRY 



with Spanish moss, 

 are highl)' pictur- 

 esque. Trunks of 

 mature trees are well 

 rounded, and usually 

 liollciw at the base. 

 The ordinary diame- 

 ters are 3 to 5 feet, 

 hut \eterans 12 feet 

 through are found. 

 The tallest individuals 

 rise to a height of 140 

 to 150 feet, the aver- 

 age height being 100 

 to 120 feet. 



Cypress " knees " 

 arouse the curiosity 

 of the visitor when he 

 first sees them. A 

 single tree may be 

 surrounded 1)\' hftv or 

 one hundred of these 

 peculiar growths, 

 formed only when the 

 trees stand in wet 

 places. If the water 

 is high, the " knees " 

 ap])ear as steeple-like 



are borne on t i n \- 

 branches that are 

 shed with the leaves. 

 In the first t}-pe the 

 leaves are thin and 

 soft-textured, a half 

 to three-quarters of 

 an inch long, narrow, 

 flattened and pointed. 

 They stand in two 

 liorizontal rows on 

 the tiny branches, like 

 the teeth of a comb, 

 and the branch with 

 its leaves may be 

 easily mistaken for a 

 single compound leaf. 

 The second t_\-pe of 

 leaf is tiny and scale- 

 like, and clinging 

 closely to the branch 

 and ])artly overlap- 

 \nng it, so that the 

 branch resembles a 



GEOGRAPHICAL AXD COMMERCIAL DISTRIBUTION OF CYPRESS IN THE 



UNITED STATES 



Although seven species commonly known as cypresses grow in the United States, only one. bald dellCatel\' W r O U g h t 



cypress {Taxodium distichum), is of great commercial importance. Taxodiitm imbricariitm. a _ - _ ^ 



closely related species, occurs in the same range as bald cypress and is cut and used with it. chain O f 1 C a V C S . 



Cypress is restricted in its natural occurrence to deep, rich swamp-lands, but when planted it ^ 



thrives in as wide a range of climate and soil as most of our forest trees. Naturally, however. TrCCS witll folia^^C 



it occurs in commercially important quantities only in regions where logging is diihcult and ... ^T 



expensive. The introduction of larger and more efficient loggmg machinery has advanced the Qf \_\l'\^ kind are Said 

 logging in any specified region from the water fronts into the deeper and less accessible swamp 



I )ro lections above the areas. Thus, the evolution in logging methods chiefly accounts for the continual commercial jjy some b O t a 11 i S t S 



importance of cypress in regions where lumbering was actively in progress many years ago. - " 



to be a distinct 



surface, some having 

 a regular cone shape, others fantastically knobbed and 

 gnarled. Low water reveals that they spring from the 

 roots of the tree, forming an astonishing system of 

 humps and hollows. l-'urther investigation will show 

 that each knee has its own system of intricately- 

 branched roots, reaching down into the muck. In places 

 .subject to very high water for part of the year, the 

 knees may be 8 or 10 feet high, but usually they are 

 only from 1 to 4 feet high. Apparently their ]nirpose 



variety [imbricariiiiii ) of bald cy])ress. 



The flowers are of two kinds. The pollen is shed in 

 S])ring from drooping clusters of minute purjile flowers. 

 The stems of the flower-clusters are 4 to 6 inches long 

 and are borne at the ends of the twigs. The seed-form- 

 ing flowers are scattered near the ends of the branches. 

 They are composed of numerous overlapping, pointed 

 scales and somewhat resemble buds, ^\'hen ripened in 

 the autumn, the\- are transformed into brown woodv 



is to reach above the water to supply air to the roots, cones of the size and shape of a small walnut. 



and also to furnish a firm footing for the great weight 

 of the tree in quagmires where engineers would have 

 difficulty in devising a foundation capable of supporting 

 a similar weight. The softer the soil, the larger and 

 more numerous are the knees. They are hollow except 

 very early in their development, and the wood of which 

 they are formed is exceedingly twisted in grain and 

 verv light in weight. The knees never send up sprouts 

 and they die after the tree is felled. 



The bark of the trunks may be thin and scaly or 

 thick and deepl}' furrowed. Apparently, this variation 



The seeds are winged at one end, one-fourth to three- 

 fourths of an inch long, and each cone produces from 20 

 to 30 seeds. Because the cone contains pockets of very 

 sticky resin with a disagreeable flavor, the seeds are 

 little relished by squirrels, mice or birds. The cones open 

 and permit the seeds to escape but they are too heavy to 

 lie carried far by the wind and fall near the parent trees. 

 -\ pound of clean liald cypress seed contains about 5000 

 separate seeds — a small number compared with the 80,000 

 seeds in a pound of Norway spruce. Under ordinary 

 conditions onlv about half of the seeds have sutificient 



is due to difTerences in the conditions of soil and moisture \itality to germinate. The older trees produce some cones 



under which the trees grow. The color of the surface each year and abundant crojjs are borne everv 3 to 5 



of the bark varies from light brown to a deep red- years. The seeds do not mature well in the northern 



dish hue. \Mien the bark is broken it pulls apart into range of the tree. Since the cypress tree is an inhabitant 



long fibrous strips of an attractive cinnamon shade of of swamp-lands the seeds germinate best in very moist 



reddish brown. places, such as wet muck or beds of sphagnum moss. 



The graceful light green foliage of bald cypress is The absolute inability of most cone-bearing trees to 



especially attractive. The leaves are of two kinds, and jiroduce even the weakest of sprouts from the stumps 



