THE NEWER EVERGREEN ORNAMENTAL TREES. 527 



yew, but not so fine a color. We have no report about it in this 

 country, and presume it will, at the North, at least, have to be 

 grown in tubs, though we have a specimen out this winter. 



Sequoia sempervirens. CALIFORNIA RED WOOD. 



Better known here as Taxodium sempervirens. Found in the 

 northwest part of North America, forming a majestic tree two 

 hundred to three hundred feet high, and often confounded with 

 Washingtonia gigantea, quite a different thing ; the foliage of 

 the Sequoia being flat, two-rowed, and dark green, while that of 

 Washingtonia is needle-shaped, spirally alternate, and on the 

 branchlets very close and regularly imbricated like an Arbor 

 vitse, besides being a light or yellowish green. The two varie- 

 ties are probably the most gigantic evergreens in the world. 

 There is a slab of the wood of the Sequoia at St. Petersburgh, 

 measuring fifteen feet in diameter, and having one thousand 

 and eight annual rings to mark its age. 



We have tried it many winters, but with hardly any success. 

 It grows too rapidly and too late in the autumn to ripen off its 

 wood, and almost always with us gets killed back to the snow- 

 line, though generally shooting up again the next spring to 

 meet a similar fate the succeeding winter. We have no returns 

 about this tree other than tender, except from Washington, 

 where a specimen, six feet high, planted by Mr. Downing, in 

 1852, is growing beautifully though slightly injured in '55-6. 

 There is no reason why, in our Southern States, it should not 

 succeed perfectly. 



Taxodium distichum. DECIDUOUS CYPRESS. 



Syn. Cuprcssus Virginiana, &c., &c. 



Though not an evergreen, yet this valuable genus is closely 

 allied to coniferous trees, and is well known by all planters as 

 the Southern or Swamp cypress, found along the banks of 

 rivers and swamps in vast quantities ; in Georgia, Carolina. 

 Florida, and all the Southern States, it reaches the height of 

 one hundred and twenty feet. It is perfectly hardy at the 



