64 TREES OF NORTH AMERICA 



into broadly ovate peltate yellow connectives bearing on their inner face in 2 rows 4-9 2- 

 valved pendulous anther-cells; female scattered near the ends of the branches of the pre- 

 vious year, subglobose, composed of numerous ovate spirally arranged long-pointed scales, 

 adnate below to the thickened fleshy ovuliferous scales bearing at their base 2 erect bottle- 

 shaped ovules. Fruit a globose or obovoid short-stalked woody cone maturing the first 

 year and persistent after the escape of the seeds, formed from the enlargement and union 

 of the flower and ovule-bearing scales abruptly dilated from slender stipes into irregularly 

 4-sided disks often mucronate at maturity, bearing on the inner face, especialh 7 on the 

 stipes, large dark glands filled with blood-red fragrant liquid resin. Seeds in pairs under 

 each scale, attached laterally to the stipes, erect, unequally 3-angled; seed-coat light brown 

 and lustrous, thick, coriaceous or corky, produced into 3 thick unequal lateral wings and 

 below into a slender elongated point; cotyledons 4-9, shorter than the superior radicle. 



Taxodium, widely distributed through North America and Europe in Miocene and Plio- 

 cene times, is now confined to the southern United States and Mexico. Two species are 

 distinguished. 



The generic name, from rdoj and eidos, indicates a resemblance of the leaves to those 

 of the Yew-tree. 



1. Taxodium distichum Rich. Bald Cypress. Deciduous Cypress. 

 Leaves on distichously spreading branchlets, apiculate, ^'-f ' long, about iV wide, light 

 bright yellow-green or occasionally silvery white below; or on the form with pendulous 



Fig. 64 



compressed branchlets long-pointed, keeled and stomatiferous below, concave above 

 more or less spreading at the free apex, about \' long; in the autumn turning with the 

 branchlets dull orange-brown before falling. Flowers: panicles of stamina te flowers 

 4'-5' long, l^'-2' wide, with slender red-brown stems, obovoid flower-buds nearly f ' long, 

 pale silvery-gray during winter and purple when the flowers expand in the spring. Fruit 

 usually produced in pairs at the end of the branch or irregularly scattered along it for several 

 inches, nearly globose or obovoid, rugose, about 1' in diameter, the scales generally destitute 

 of tips; seeds with wings nearly \' long, \' wide. 



A tree, with a tall lobed gradually tapering trunk, rarely 12 and generally 4-5 in di- 

 ameter above the abruptly enlarged strongly buttressed usually hollow base, occasionally 

 150 tall, in youth pyramidal, with slender branches often becoming elongated and slightly 

 pendulous, in old age spreading out into a broad low rounded crown often 100 across, and 

 slender branchlets light green when they first appear, light red-brown and rather lustrous 



