NOTES OX THE BALD CYPRESS. i) 



given np its wider place in the forests, and limited itself to the swamp 

 areas, where it has no struggle to maintain with other trees. It may be 

 remarked that the limiting of the Taxodium to a narrow station, if such 

 a limitation has occurred, would find its parallel in the conditions of many 

 of our other coniferous trees. The white pine {Pinus mitis) in Kentucky 

 is circumscribed within very narrow boundaries, and only maintains itself 

 at a disadvantage against the vigorous deciduous woods. The same may 

 be said of the hemlock, which is limited to stations that are really unsought 

 by our other trees. The western part of the United States aifords an even 

 more remarkable example of the narrow limitation of a tree that once was 

 A'ery widely distributed. The Sequoia gigantea is a noble representative 

 of a long lineage of trees that once ranged throughout the Noi'thern Hem- 

 isphere, and noAV is limited to a very small area on the Pacific coast. It 

 seems certain that in Kentucky the conifers are fighting at a disadvan- 

 tage against the deciduous trees, which are gaining upon their ground; 

 and it seems not unlikely that the conifers, as a whole, are losing ground 

 and giving place to the more varied and more plastic deciduous forests. 

 Loss of adaptation to varied conditions is a common phenomenon in all 

 organisms of which we have an extended geological history. 



A similar narrowing down of the field occupied by the foi'm is seen 

 also in the somewhat kindred conifer, the sequoia, and in a less degree 

 in many of the old associates of the Taxodium in Europe and Asia. Yet 

 this limitation to a narrow geographical range is not quite parallel to the 

 peculiar exclusion of the Taxodium from the upland forests of the conti- 

 nent. I am unable to point to any source of weakness that is the basis 

 of this restriction. The cypress is a very rapid grower even on the 

 uplands. It easily overtops and makes head against the timber on the 

 edge of the swamp whenever a chance specimen may secure a foothold. 

 The seeds are plentiful and easily grown, the young trees appearing vig- 

 orous from the beginning of their growth. 



There is yet another problem connected with the conditions of the Tax- 

 odium that is worthy of note. The trees are often found growing from 

 the center of permanent pools of water, where it is hard to suppose that 

 they could have originated save from seeds. I have not been able to find 

 that they ever sjiring from the roots of other trees. A careful search of 

 many specimens has not shown the trace of root-budding, and many other 

 observers have failed to find any case of this kind. It is very hard to 



