12 THE PINE FAMILY. 



dant verdure must cease, it, with the rhododendrons, forms a distinctive 

 verdure. Here in its best loved haunt it was a great pleasure to see it grow- 

 ing. On Grandfather Mountain we found it not nearly so abundant nor 

 did it so crown the mountain as it does on Roan, perhaps the most beautiful 

 peak of the Alleghany chain. At a little station called Balsam in N. C. we 

 saw a few of these trees which had been planted, but with that exception 

 their home is on the very high mountains. When leaving Roan Mountain I 

 took with me a great meal bag filled with the foliage of this fir, as I wished 

 for a pillow. And all those that met us on the way down, when seeing it, 

 called out, " no need to tell, you'uns hev' bin up the mountin." 



The clear and thin liquid, balsam, as it is called, which exudes from the 

 blisters on the trunk and tips of the branches, is regarded as useful by the 

 natives to cure cuts and sores, their natural hardiness aiding them to stand 

 up under its severe application. They also use the wood occasionally for 

 the construction of their cabins and gather its foliage abundantly for 

 pillows. From the ordinary standpoint of commerce it is not thought to be 

 very valuable and in any case its remote habitat would make it inaccessible. 



BALD CYPRESS. CYPRESS. i^Plate V.) 

 TaxbdiiDH distichum. 



FAMILY SHAPE HEIGHT RANGE TIME OF BLOOM 



Pine. Conical ; branches 6o-\'^o feet. Mississippi valley., Gulf April, 



spreading^. and Coast region io Delaware. 



Bark : reddish brown ; fissured, scaly and fibrous in age. Branchlets : slender, 

 distichously forked. Z^^^z/^j; light green ; simple; growing closely in two ranks 

 along the branches; half an inch long; needle-shaped; pointed; also occurring 

 awl-shaped and overlapping each other; deciduous. FUnvers : nioncecious; yel- 

 lowish; appearing some time before the leaves. Stamitiate floiuers : growing 

 comjjactly in terminal, drooping panicled s])ike.s. Pistillate ones: growing in 

 small clusters. Co}ies : usually less than one inch in diameter; light brown when 

 ripe; pendulous at, or near the ends of the branches; globular; the several angu- 

 lar scales forming a closed ball until mature. 



By Dr. Charles Mohr, who has made an exhaustive study of the conifer- 

 ous trees of America, the bald cypress is regarded as being the most won- 

 derful individual of them all ; and considerably over a hundred years ago 

 Bartram wrote of it : " This cypress is in the first order of North American 

 trees. Its majestic stature is surprising. On approaching it we are struck 

 with a kind of awe at beholding the stateliness of its trunk lifting its cum- 

 brous top towards the sJ-:y and casting a wide shadow on the ground as a 

 dark, intervening cloud, which from time to time excludes the rays of the 

 sun. The delicacy of its colour and the texture of its leaves exceed every- 

 thing in vegetation." And so he continues to speak about it enthusiasti- 

 cally. Among its peculiarities it has a ready means of adapting itself to 



