CONIFERAE 65 



would probably do considerable damage, on account of the tree's 

 thin jjark. 



Its distribution in Alabama is rather irregular, but as far as 

 present knowledge permits it is shown on the accompanying map 

 by solid black along streams. It is assumed that wherever this 

 species has been observed along any creek it occurs from that point 

 all the way down to its mouth, unless we have information to the 

 contrary. It is confined to the coastal i)lain, except for extending 

 a little farther inland along the Tennessee. Coosa and Tallapoosa 

 Rivers and some of their tributaries.* On account of being almost 

 confined to the banks and swamps of rivers, it does not constitute 

 a large proportion of the forest of any region except the Mobile 

 delta, which is practically all swamp (and probably most of the 

 original supply there has been cut out). It grows so slowly in the 

 swamps that it does not have much chance to restore itself after 

 logging operations. 



Taxodium ascendens Brong. (T. iiiihricariiini (Nutt.) Harper.) 

 (PoxD) Cypress. (Probably also called black cypress.) 



(Map 9, Fig. 15) 



This tree has been confused with the preceding by most botan- 

 ists, foresters and lumbermen, and nearly all geologists and soil 

 mappers: but it differs in being smaller (hardly ever more than 

 two feet in diameter above the enlarged l)ase and fifty feet tall). 

 the base often more abruptly enlarged and always with rounded 

 instead of sharp ridges, the bark thicker and coarsely ridged (this 

 difference can often be seen even in crossties, which have only a 

 small strip of bark left), the trunk always a little crooked (in 

 mature trees), the knees usualh' wanting. l)ut when present short 

 and rounded, and the leaves appressed to erect branchlets instead 

 of flat and horizontal { except on young shoots, where they may be 

 indistinguishable from those (jf the other species). Its distribution, 

 habitat, and relations to fire are also different, as will be pointed 

 out presently. 



Its economic properties are about the same as those of T. dis- 

 tichum, except that the trunks are usually too small and crooked to 

 make boats out of. Its principal uses are for telegraph and tele- 



*See Bull. Torrev Bot. Club 33:525. 1906. 



