THE BALD CYPRESS • 67 



probably connected with lack of facilities for seeding and some 

 environmental factor affecting the vitality of the seedlings where 

 they do succeed in getting a start. 



The case of the cypress is not an exceptionable one among trees 

 and its past history will be found to be more or less paralleled by 

 many of the forest trees that are discussed in succeeding chapters, 

 whose ancestors reach back several milhons of years, and whose 

 present structures, habits and ranges are the result of ages of 

 adjustment to the maze of interacting and constantly changing 

 environmental forces amid which they have run their race — some- 

 thing which I fancy is not generally appreciated by lovers and 

 students of the modern trees. 



