THE CYPRESSES 273 



This white cedar is the swamp-loving variety of the 

 Atlantic seaboard — its range stretches from Maine to Mis- 

 sissippi. The durability of its white wood gives it consider- 

 able importance as a lumber tree. It is particularly de- 

 pendable when placed in contact with water and exposed to 

 weather. Cedar shingles, fence posts, railroad ties, buckets, 

 and other cooperage consume quantities each year. The 

 trees are important ornamental evergreens, planted for 

 their graceful spray and their dull blue-green leaves. 

 Their maximum height is eighty feet. 



The Lawson Cypress 

 C. Lawsoniana, A. Murr. 



The Lawson cypress lifts its splendid spire to a height of 

 two hundred feet, on the coast mountains of Oregon and 

 California, forming a nearly continuous forest belt twenty 

 miles long, between Point Gregory and the mouth of the 

 Coquille River. Spire-like, with short, horizontal branches, 

 this species bears a leaf-spray of feathery lightness, 

 bright green, from the multitude of minute paired leaf- 

 scales, and adorned with the clustered pea-sized cones, 

 which are blue-green and very pale until they ripen. 



The wood of this giant cypress is used in house-finishing 

 and in boat-building; for flooring, fencing, and for railroad 

 ties. 



The Bald Cypress 



\ Taxodiuvi distichum, Rich. 



The bald cypress is the one member of the cypress group 

 that sheds its foliage each autumn, following the example 

 of the tamarack. In the Far South, river swamps are often 



