90 The Bald Cypresses 



exhibit its beauty in cultivation in the eastern States, as it does not thrive when 

 grown out of its fog-ladened native region ; it grows to great perfection in Europe. 



VIII. THE BALD CYPRESSES 



GENUS TAXODIUM L. C. RICHARD 



[]NLY 3 species are known, somewhat resinous, deciduous-leaved trees of 

 temperate and warm regions, now confined to the eastern United 

 States and Mexico, but represented by fossil forms in the arctic regions 

 of Europe and North America. 

 They have alternate, spirally arranged leaves, which often appear as if 2-ranked. 

 All the leaves and some of the lateral twigs are deciduous in the autumn. The 

 leaf-buds are minute, scaly. The flowers are monoecious, opening in the spring 

 before the leaves appear, from buds formed the previous autumn, or sometimes 

 they open in the autumn. The staminate, which are very profusely borne in 

 terminal, long, pendulous panicled spikes, are globose, subtended by numerous 

 imbricated scales, above which the stamens are raised on a short stalk; the fila- 

 ments are very short, the large yellow connectives broadly ovate, and on them 

 several globose anther-cells are borne. The pistillate flowers are in small terminal 

 clusters, borne near the ends of the twigs of the previous season, sub-globose, com- 

 posed of crowded, thick ovate scales, each conceaHng 2 ovules. The fruit is a 

 globose or short-oblong cone, ripening the first season, but persisting for a short 

 time after shedding the seed, composed of several short-stalked, thick, woody, 

 shield-Hke scales, each with a triangular scar; seeds 2 under each scale, erect, 

 sharply but unequally triangular, leathery, shining, and irregularly 3-winged; coty- 

 ledons 6 to 9. 



These trees have the pecuharity of forming upright projections from the roots 



when growing in water; these are called cypress knees. The name is Greek, in 



allusion to the yew-Hke leaves of the type species, T. distichum (L.) L, C. Richard. 



One species, Taxodium mucronatum Tenore, the Mexican Bald Cypress, occurs 



in northeastern Mexico near our southern boundary. 



Leaves 2-ranked, widely spreading; twigs elongated; bark thin, rather 



smooth. 1. T. distichum. 



Leaves closely appressed; twigs appressed, bark thick, deeply furrowed. 2. T. ascendens. 



I. BALD CYPRESS Taxodium distichum (Linnaeus) L. C. Richard 



Cupressus disticha Linnaeus 



This large tree of our southern States is also called Black cypress, Red cypress. 

 White cypress, and Deciduous cypress. It is confined to the coastal region from 

 southern Delaware to Florida, westward, near the Gulf, to Texas, and up the 

 Mississippi valley to Missouri and Indiana, often forming great forests in swamps 



