CHAP. XII.] CUPRESSINEiE. 225 



or more cotyledons, while the Cypress has only 

 two. The deciduous Cypress was placed in the 

 genus Cupressus by Linnaeus, and afterwards it 

 was called Schubertia disticha by Mirbel. The 

 tree, which grows 120 feet high and upwards in 

 America, with a trunk fortyfeet in circumference 

 at the base, has generally, when of this size, the 

 lower part of its trunk hollow, often to the 

 height of five feet or six feet from the ground. 

 The roots also send up conical protuberances 

 two feet high, and four feet or five feet wide, 

 which are always hollow. These curious knobs 

 are called in America "cypress knees ;'^ and 

 the negroes use them for bee-hives. The wood 

 of the deciduous Cypress is used in building in 

 Virginia. There is another species (T. semper- 

 virens) which does not lose its leaves in v/inter, 

 a native of California, but it has not yet been 

 introduced. 



THE GENUS JUXIPERUS. THE JUNIPER. 



The species of this genus are extremely vari- 

 able in their leaves, which differ exceedingly on 

 the same plant, and in the size to which the 

 plants attain ; as even the common Juniper, 

 though generally a shrub not above three feet 

 high, sometimes becomes a tree. In the com- 

 mon Juniper {Juniperus communis) the leaves 

 are narrow and pointed, and they are placed in 



