THE BALD CYPRESS 61 



In the earliest Tertiary, however, in the days when the primitive 

 mammals were replacing the last of the dinosaurs, we find the cy- 

 press in many countries, and it soon comes to be cosmopolitan in 

 so far as the Northern Hemisphere is concerned, although it has 

 never been definitely recognized in the Sohithem Hemisphere. 

 These Eocene records are very numerous and are based upon the 

 remains of leafy twigs, seemingly thus early to have acquired the 

 deciduous habit fqr which the bald cjrpress is notable, and which is 

 rather unique among conifers and only shared by the larch among 

 modern forms, in which however it is the leaves and not the twigs 

 which are shed. 



This deciduous habit may perhaps mean that the original home 

 of the cypress was in the far North, possibly during Cretaceous 

 times. In addition to the twigs, cone scales and seeds are fre- 

 quently found in the rocks, and sometimes wood showing the 

 anatomy of the genus is preserved although anatomy alone is 

 applied with difficulty in the differentiation of some of these genera. 



The Eocene range of the cypress is probably more remarkable 

 than anything in its later history, for the Eocene records include 

 Alaska, Alberta, British Columbia, Siberia, Manchuria, Green- 

 land and Spitzbergen. From these relatively high latitudes the 

 cypress seems to have spread southward over Canada to Montana, 

 Wyoming and Nevada, and to the shores of the Mississippi Gulf 

 of that time. Presumably it also spread over Asia at the same 

 time even though we lack the actual records, for it appeared in 

 Europe shortly afterward, or with the dawn of Oligocene time. 



Unfortunately we know of but few plant beds in North America 

 of Oligocene age, although we have no reason for doubting the 

 continued presence of the cypress over a large part of North America 

 at that time. In Europe there are a number of OHgocene records 

 and these include southern France and the countries bordering 

 the Baltic Sea. The maximum of development and range of the 

 Cypress was attained during the next geological age — the Miocene. 

 At that time its remains are found from Japan on the East to 

 Austria, Switzerland and Italy on the West. Along with the still 

 more abundant sequoia, the cyi)ress was one of the contributors 



