Taxodium 177 



Seedling. There are 5 or 6 cotyledons, borne in a whorl at the summit of a 

 purplish brown caulicle, about 2 inches long, ending in a tiny curved rootlet, which 

 subsequently develops a few lateral fibres. The cotyledons are linear, i to i^ inch 

 long, yig inch broad, sessile on a broad base, gradually diminishing to an acute apex, 

 upper surface dark green, bearing stomata in lines with a raised midrib ; lower surface 

 pale green and uniform. On the stem above the cotyledons are borne about 3 false 

 whorls of leaves, \ inch long, those below resembling the cotyledons, but bearing 

 stomata on both surfaces ; those above having decurrent bases. In the axils of the 

 uppermost leaves lateral branchlets are given off, bearing needles in two rows and 

 forming short shoots, which fall off" in autumn. 



The preceding description is taken from seedlings raised at Colesborne from 

 cones gathered by Elwes in September 1904 at Mt. Carmel, Illinois. (A. H.) 



Distribution 



This remarkable tree occurs in North America from southern Delaware, where, 

 according to Sargent, it formerly attained almost its largest size, all along the coast 

 region as far as the Devil's River in Texas, and up the Mississippi valley as far as 

 southern Illinois and south-western Indiana. In these regions it inhabits river 

 bottoms usually submerged during several months, and swampy places. On the 

 Edwards Plateau of Texas,' several hundred miles west of the great cypress swamps 

 of eastern Texas, it occurs at 1000 to 1 750 feet above sea-level, and attains an enormous 

 size at the edges of the deeper holes near the heads of the permanent water of the 

 Pedernales and other streams. This highland form in certain respects resembles the 

 Mexican variety. In some parts of Louisiana, Texas, and the Gulf States, it occurs 

 as pure forest, and in places so continuously flooded that the seed cannot germinate, 

 I have passed on the railway, built on trestles for miles, through cypress swamps 

 where the soil was submerged to a depth of 5 or 6 feet, and where few other trees 

 could live. In drier places, such as the Wabash valley in southern Indiana, near 

 Mount Carmel, where the cypress is evidently not so happy, it was associated with 

 ash, liquidambar, and maple. In this locality also, although the trees were covered 

 with fruit, I could find no seedlings ; and as the accessible trees are in most 

 places being rapidly cut for their timber, they seem likely to become scarcer 

 unless protected. As far as I know it does not grow from the stool or from 

 suckers.^ 



In Arkansas and Missouri there are swamps^ in which both Taxodium and 

 Nyssa uniflora grow together, the latter with a peculiar dome -shaped base, 



' Ann. Report U.S. Geol. Survey, xviii. 210, 211 (1898). There are specimens from this locality at Kew. 



' R. Ridgway describes this locality as being in 1873 heavily timbered with cypress over an area of about 20,000 acres, 

 in which the best trees had even then been cut and floated out into the river. The largest stump he measured was 38 feet in 

 girth at the ground and 22 feet at 8 feet high. The largest standing tree measured was 27 feet in girth above the swollen base, 

 and the tallest 146 and 147 feet high. Their average height, however, was not above 100 feet, and even the finest of them would 

 not compare for symmetry and length with the sweet gums (liquidambar) and ashes (Fraxiims atiieruana) with which they 

 were associated. /'roc. U.S. Nat. Mus. 1882, p. 87. An excellent photograph taken here is publbhed in Garden and Forest, 

 iii. p. 7, and shows the knees remarkably well. 



' Coulter, Missouri Bot, Garden Report, 1903, p. 58. 

 I 2A 



