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63 



Fig. 14. A few old and many young specimens of Taxodiuin disticlunii 

 in old flood-plain of Alabama River about a mile northeast of Montgom- 

 ery. October 26, 1926. The young trees are quite differently shaped from 

 the old ones, and their abundance at this particular place must be due to 

 some sort of human interference, perhaps a generation or two ago. 



are made of broad split slabs of this species. Other common uses 

 for cypress wood, when sawed, are for trestles, barrels, interior 

 finish, furniture, doors, sash and blinds, greenhouse frames, gut- 

 ters, etc. 



References: Fernow, Hall & Maxwell 1. Harper 1. 2. Mat- 

 toon 1. 



This species grows normally in calcareous and alluvial swamps, 

 where the water does not fluctuate more than about twenty feet in 

 the course of a year.* (It is therefore usually absent from the 

 immediate banks of our larger rivers, except near their mouths ; 

 and there is much more of it on the Tombigbee River than on the 

 Alabama, probably because the fluctuations of the former were 

 less, even before the building of locks and dams on it two or three 

 decades ago.) Its knees usually grow to the height of average 

 high water, or perhaps to the greatest height at which the water 

 stands for a week ( or whatever is their maximum period of en- 

 durance) at a time: which seems to be never more than six feet. 

 Fire is rare or unknown in the cypress swamps, but if it came it 



*See Torreya. 11 :228. 231. 1911 : Science, 36:760-761. Nov. 29, 1912. 



