CHAPTER II 

 HOW TO IDENTIFY TREES— (Continued) 



GROUP IV. THE LARCH AND CYPRESS 



How to tell them from other trees: In summer the 

 larch and cypress may easily be told from other trees 

 by their leaves. These are needle-shaped and arranged 

 in clusters with numerous leaflets to each cluster in the case 

 of the larch, and feathery and flat in the case of the 

 cypress. In winter, when their leaves have dropped off, 

 the trees can be told by their cones, which adhere to the 

 branches. 



There are nine recognized species of larch and two of 

 bald cypress. The larch is characteristically a northern 

 tree, growing in the northern and mountainous regions 

 of the northern hemisphere from the Arctic circle to Penn- 

 sylvania in the New World, and in Central Europe, Asia, 

 and Japan in the Old World. It forms large forests in 

 the Alps of Switzerland and France. 



The European larch and not the American is the prin- 

 cipal species considered here, because it is being planted 

 extensively in this country and in most respects is prefer- 

 able to the American species. 



The bald cypress is a southern tree of ancient origin, 

 the well-known cypress of Montezuma in the gardens of 

 Chepultepec having been a species of Taxodium. The 

 tree is now confined to the swamps and river banks of the 



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