284 TAXODIUM DISTICHUM. 



dry ground fail to develop "knees"; in addition to which those who 

 contend that the supply of air to the roots is the main function, note 

 that " the development of the ' knees ' is always above the permanent 

 water-level and to a height varying with that level, and conversely, 

 whenever the level of permanent water rises above the top of the 

 ' knees,' the destruction of the trees ensues."* 



Taxodium disticlmm was first described by Parkinson in his Herbal 

 or Theatre of Plants published in 1640, but mention of it had been 

 made much earlier by William Strachy who visited the English 

 colony on James Eiver in 1610. According to Parkinson, seeds 

 were brought from Virginia by the younger Tradescant, which lie 

 himself saw " springing up very bravely " ; the deciduous Cypress was 

 thence one of the first American trees introduced into Great Britain. 

 Since Parkinson's time, mention of the tree is frequent in works 

 devoted to horticulture, and many beautiful specimens may be seen 

 throughout the country ;f but it cannot be said to thrive satisfactorily 

 except in proximity to water or where the soil is permanently moist, 

 and even then its progress may be called slow, its average yearly 

 growth rarely exceeding twelve inches. Nevertheless in such situations 

 it is one of the most beautiful of trees ; its elegant and light 

 feathery foliage of the softest green imparts to it an individuality 

 that seldom fails to elicit the admiration of the beholder. 



If such is the impression made by the deciduous Cypress when 

 seen in its best aspects in Great Britain, very different are the 

 feelings of those who have penetrated the Cypress swamps in the 

 southern States of Xorth America especially where this tree forms 

 the sole ingredient of the forest. A typical feature of a Cypress 

 swamp is thus described by Mr. Montefiore in " Murray's Magazine," 

 which is here transcribed from the " Gardeners' Chronicle," Vol. VII. 

 ser. (1890), p. 324. 



" It forms one of the most desolate scenes I have ever beheld. I 

 have gazed on the black rock of St. Paul's standing almost alone in 

 the Indian Ocean ; upon the repellent rufous hills of St. Helena ; the 

 salt marshes of the delta of the Godavery ; the cruel solitude of Cape 

 Agulhas, but I do not think I have ever seen anything so dismal and 

 so desolate as the Cypress swamps of Florida. You enter them almost 

 without warning ; you hold your breath, as it were, while going through 

 them ; and the feeling of relief on leaving them is not less strong 

 than the strangely morbid attraction they have for you, and which 

 makes you visit them again and again. The Cypresses stand overhead 

 reaching to a great height and spread their limbs widely around, and 

 yet there is not a single green leaf to be seen. From bough and 

 branch and twig there hang long tails and festoons of Spanish moss 

 (TUlandma usneoides), grey in colour and looking for all the world like 

 the dishevelled tresses of an aged woman. Every way you look these 



""Other coniferous trees growing near water have been observed to develop "knees," 

 as the Pond Pine (Pi/ius rigida var. seroti/ia), and the Redwood (Sequoia sempermrens). 

 t Notably at Syon House, Middlesex. 



