CYPRESS 



{Taxodiiim disHchum Rich.) 



TTIIE cypress, or bald cypress, is a tree found 

 exclusively in deep swamps which are usually 

 flooded for long periods at a time, and on wet stream 

 banks and bottomlands in the lower Atlantic Coastal 

 Plain and westward. Its straight trunk with numer- 

 ous ascending branches, and narrow conical outline 

 makes the tree one of considerable beauty. In old 



CYPRESS 

 One-balf natural size. 



age, the tree generally has a broad fluted or but- 

 tressed base, a smooth slowly tapering trunk and a 

 broad, open, flat top of a few heavy branches and 

 numerous small branchlets. The original-growth 

 timber attained heights of 80 to 130 feet and diam- 

 eters of 5 to 10 feet. 



The bark is silvery to cinnamon-red and finely 

 divided by numerous longitudinal fissures. The 

 leaves are about one-half to three-fourths of an inch 

 in length, arranged in feather-like fashion along two 

 sides of small branchlets, which fall in the autumn 

 with the leaves still attached ; or they are scale-like 

 and much shorter, light green, and sometimes silvery 

 below. 



The fruit is a rounded cone, or "ball," about one 

 inch in diameter, consisting of thick irregular scales. 



The wood is light, soft, easily worked, varies in 

 color from a light sapwood to dark-brown heart- 

 wood, and is particularly durable in contact with 

 the soil. Hence it is in demand for exterior trim 

 of buildings, greenhouse planking, boat and ship 

 building, shingles, posts, poles and crossties. 



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