CHAP, cxjii. coNi'FER^. cupre'ssus. 24-83 



towards the autumn. Most of these shoots have then- points killed every 

 winter, and many of them are entirely destroyed. 4. T. d. tortuosum pen- 

 dulum, with the leaves on the young shoots tortuous, and the branches pendu- 

 lous. There is a very elegant specimen of this tree at White Knights. With 

 respect to the T. sinense of cultivators, we have not been able to discover in 

 what it differs from T. nutans. 



Description. A tree, in North America, 120 ft. high. Trunk very thick, 

 often from 25 ft. to 40 ft. in circumference at the base. Branchlets very 

 slender, elegantly pinnate, bark brownish. Leaves pectinate and distichous ; 

 spreading horizontally, from being twisted at the base ; linear, mucronulate, 

 flat, I-nerved (nerve somewhat depressed above) ; glabrous on both sides, 

 light green ; margins acute, exterior somewhat convex, i in. or more in length, 

 about 1 line broad. Male catkins roundish, in a racemose panicle ; scales 

 very short, obtuse, concave, keeled, membranaceous on the margin. Galbulus 

 roundish or roundish-oval, of the size of a pigeon's egg. The tree, though 

 pyramidal in form when it is young, yet, when full-grown, has a spreading 

 broad head, somewhat in the manner of that of an old cedar of Lebanon. 

 There are but few trees in Britain which have assumed this character ; but, 

 according Michaux, it is common in the swamps of America ; and it has also 

 begun to show itself in some of the old trees at Whitton and Syon. The 

 bark of trees which grow near the natural beds of the rivers, and are half the 

 year surrounded with water to the height of 3 ft. or 4 ft., is lighter-coloured 

 than that of trees which stand in places which the waters do not reach ; the 

 wood, also, is whiter, less resinous, and less heavy. These are called white 

 cypresses. The others, of which the bark is browner, and the wood heavier, 

 more resinous, and of a duskier hue, are called black cypresses; whence we 

 have, in some catalogues, T. d. nigrum ; but this name we have not given in our 

 list of varieties, as it is obviously only that of a variation. The wood is fine- 

 grained, and, after being for some time exposed to the light, becomes of a reddish 

 colour : it possesses great strength and elasticity, and is lighter and less re- 

 sinous than that of the pines. It has also a greater power of resisting heat 

 and moisture. The foliage is open, light, and of a fresh agreeable tint; each 

 frond, or young shoot, is 4 in. or 5 in. long, and consists of two parallel rows 

 of leaves upon a common stem. The leaves are small, fine, and somewhat 

 arched, with the convex side outwards. In the autumn, they change from a 

 light green to a dull red, and soon after fall off. The deciduous cypress blos- 

 soms in Carolina about the 1st of February. The male catkins are produced 

 in flexible pendulous aments, and the female in very small bunches. The 

 cones are about as large as the point of the thumb, hard, roundish, and of an 

 uneven surface. The seeds are small, ligneous, and of irregular shapes, with 

 a cylindrical kernel : they are ripe in October, and retain their productive 

 power two years. (^Lamb., Mic}ix.,ax\A obs.) 



The deciduous cypress, in America, attains its largest size in the swamps of 

 the southern states and the Floridas, on the deep miry soil of which a new layer 

 is every year deposited by the floods. These trees, which are sometimes 40 ft. 

 in circumference at the base, are, however, always at least three times as thick 

 there as they are in any other part of the trunk. The base is usually hollow for 

 three quarters of its bulk ; and its surface is longitudinally furrowed with deep 

 tortuous channels. In consequence of the hoUowness and comparative worth- 

 lessness of the lower part of the trunk, the negroes raise themselves on scaf- 

 folds 3 ft. or 6 ft. from the ground, when the trees are to be felled, in order to 

 cut off only the sound part of the tree. The roots of large trees, particularly in 

 situations subject to inundation, are charged with conical protuberances, com- 

 monly from 1ft. Gin. to 2ft. high, and sometimes from 4ft. to 5ft. in thickness : 

 they are always hollow, smooth on the surface, and covered with a reddish bark, 

 like the roots, which they resemble also in the softness of their wood. Michaux 

 says that " no cause can be assigned for their existence : they are peculiar to the 

 deciduous cypress, and begin to appear when it is only 20ft. or 25 ft. high. They 

 are made use of by the negroes for bee-hives." He adds that they exhibit 



7x3 



