THE DECIDUOUS CYPRESS 209 



corded a nearer affinity with the Sequoias of North 

 America and the Cr^-ptomerias of Japan, to which 

 subject we have made further allusion under the 

 heading of Cryptomeria. 



The Deciduous Cypress (Taxodium Dis- 

 tichum). — 



I hate those trees that never lose their foliage. 

 They seem to have no sympathy with nature ; 

 Winter and summer are aUke to them. 



W. S. Landor. 



The Deciduous Cypress is the one recusant repre- 

 sentative of the Taxodinean fold, in that it does not 

 conform to the established custom in force among 

 its other fellow tribesmen, of submitting to evergreen 

 practices. Were the tree gifted with a power to 

 understand, we can imagine with what satisfaction 

 it would hail the one-sided bitterness contained in 

 the w^ords of the above-quoted poet, and spoken in 

 condemnation of undeciduous ways. 



As the Cupr. Lusitanica is spoken of as the Cedar 

 of Goa — ^whereas, in point of fact, it happens neither 

 to be a Cedar nor to come originally from Goa — so 

 also on the same principle, or want of principle, our 

 tree in question has been named and surnamed by 

 such descriptions as Taxodium and C^^ress. 



The word ''taxodium" means like a Yew, and 

 is derived from rafo? (the Yew) and €^^09 (shape or 

 form). Against the employment of the word Dis- 

 tichum, although it may not be very illuminating 

 w^e will not exercise our national privilege of grumb- 

 ling. It is a word derived from the Greek word 

 hicTTLxo^j which means two-rowed, and was a word 

 once applied to a measure of verse, and has since 

 been appropriated by the botanical world to signify 

 leaves arranged in two ranks. As the arrangement 



