NOTES ON THE BALD CYPRESS. 7 



related species was living in Grecnlaml, and its kindi'ed have been traced 

 in Northern Europe and elsewhere; so that this genus has long been a 

 tenant of this continent. Among these ancient cypresses there are some, 

 particularly Taxodium dubium Sternb. sp., which are very nearly related 

 to our existing forms ; like it, they seem to have been tenants of swamps, 

 as is sufficiently proven by the fact that their leaves and delicate extreme 

 branches are found in the coal beds of the miocene time. It seems prob- 

 able that the American vai'ieties have descended from some one of these 

 ancient forms — most likely from T. dubium. Further back, in the Car- 

 boniferous flora, we find a numljer of conifers, from some one of which this 

 genus may be descended. I have been unable to find any evidence of the 

 existence of these knees in the recorded observations of those who have 

 studied the ancient .species of Taxodium. Though this failure to observe 

 them in the fossil form may not be taken as evidence that the knees are 

 of modern origin, it certainly suggests the interesting question whether 

 this may be the case, and makes it very desirable that the observers who 

 may hereafter encounter fossil species of this genus should endeavor to 

 determine the presence or absence of these processes. The fact that the 

 ancient species were swamp-dwellei's makes it likely that the knees were 

 present. 



From the existing distribution of this tree, it seems to me that it has 

 probably been driven from an association, on the elevated lands, with the 

 other trees of the forests in the Mississijjpi Valley, and has found a refuge 

 in the swamps; and that but for this special adaptation to diflferent con- 

 ditions aiforded it by the knees, it would have been altogether driven out 

 by the deciduous vegetation of the country where it is found. It is clear 

 that this last remnant of a great lineage of forest trees is no longer able 

 to maintain itself in the contest with forms with which it, in miocene days, 

 associated on something nearer equality. Although its seeds are borne in 

 vast quantities on to the elevated ground that borders the swamps, we never 

 find it in the woods where it Avould have had to struggle with the other 

 trees. This arises from no incapacity to live and flourish upon the soils 

 of the uplands, for I know many ^'ery flourishing trees growing in a variety 

 of open grounds in gardens and lawns in ^■arious parts of Kentucky. In 

 many gardens and arboretums in Europe it has proven a hardy and rapid 

 growing tree. Its rate of growth on the elevated terrace deposits at Frank- 

 fort, Kentucky, has been much more rapid than the average of our forest 



