578 



TAXODIUM 



several inches thick, and hollow. The young shoots are of two kinds: 

 (i) the leading ones, which are persistent and have the leaves spirally 

 arranged;' (2) the others, very slender, annual, and falling away in 

 autumn along with the leaves ; this latter kind of shoot has no buds. 

 Leaves spirally attached, but spreading (except in the leading shoots) in 

 two opposite horizontal rows ; linear, pointed, f to f in. long, T \- to r V in. 

 wide, of a soft yellowish green. Male and female flowers separate, but 

 on the same tree ; the former in slender panicles 4 or 5 ins. long. Cones 

 globular, f to ij- ins. wide. 



Native of the southern United States, mostly in swamps, where its base 

 is submerged during a portion of the year; introduced early in the 



TAXODIUM DISTICHUM (male). 



seventeenth century. This tree is one of the most beautiful and 

 interesting that can be grown in wet places, although it thrives well, too, 

 in ordinary soil. Its fine feathery foliage, of the tenderest green in spring, 

 and dying off a rich brown in autumn, has nothing similar to it in the 

 whole range of hardy trees. It is perfectly hardy near London, and 

 very accommodating. A dry hollow at Kew, in which a deciduous 

 cypress was. growing, was turned into a lily pond in 1896 by puddling it 

 over with clay. The Taxodium was left standing, and its trunk became 

 permanently immersed in 2 or 3 ft. of water. The tree showed no ill 

 effects from the sudden and drastic change in its root conditions, but on 

 the contrary has grown much better ever since ; only the immersed part 

 of the trunk has become swollen and spongy. The finest trees I have 



