70 Illustrations of Conifers. 



TAXODIUM DISTICHUM (Richard). DECIDUOUS CYPRESS. 



Vriteh'i Man. Conif. ed. 2. p. 178 (1900). 



Tree* of Great Britain and Ireland, Vol. I. p. 178 (1906). 



A DECIDUOUS tree known to attain 150 feet in height and 12 feet in 

 diameter, trunk tapering, enlarged at the base ; pyramidal when young, 

 the crown becoming wide and flattened in older specimens. Bark dull 

 reddish-brown, 1 to 2 inches thick, separating into long fibrous scales. 



Branchlets of two kinds, those at the apex of the shoot persistent 

 and bearing axillary buds ; those lower on the shoot deciduous and 

 without buds. 



Leaves of a delicate green colour but turning a reddish-brown 

 before they fall in autumn ; inserted spirally on the branchlets, those 

 on the persistent shoots spreading radially ; those on the deciduous 

 shoots thrown by a twisting of their bases into a pectinate arrange- 

 ment, linear, acute, grooved above, keeled and bearing stomata below. 

 In var. imbricaria, occurring both in the wild state and in cultivation, 

 the leaves are appressed around the twig with their apices free and 

 spreading. 



Male flowers in panicles 3 to 5 inches long, arising at the end of the 

 previous year's shoot ; minute, consisting of a stalk surrrounded at 

 its base by ovate scales, and bearing six to eight stamens. Fruit a 

 globular or ellipsoidal short stalked woody cone an inch or more in 

 diameter, ripening in the first year, composed of thick coriaceous 

 peltate scales. Seeds, two on each fertile scale, erect, three-angled. 



The Deciduous Cypress occurs in the United States from southern 

 Delaware 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 alluvial tracts and swamps. 



It was introduced into cultivation in England by John Tradescant 

 about 1640. The wood is light and soft, and having the property of 

 resisting damp is used for shingles, doors, sashes and greenhouses. It 

 grows well in the southern and western counties of the British Isles. 



The Bayfordbury specimen measures 25 feet in height. 



