NOTES OH THE UAI.h »\ PRESS. 



■\ fad tli it serves t" Bhow a relation between the circumsl 

 tli.it surround an animal or plant and it- peculiarities "t' structure has 

 in importance t«> naturaliata. It may aid in the solution of the 

 iroblema they now have in hand. I therefore venture t<> m.-ikf a 

 record of certain facta concerning the habita of the Bwamp cypresa (Tax- 

 odium distickium) of our Southern States which Beem to me t" be impor- 

 tant have been made ;it various times during tin' last 

 ten years, but principally in connection with the work of the Kentucky 

 _ -il Survey, in the district west of the Cumberland river. 



il little attention to this Bpeciea t>> make it plain that it is 

 subject to great changes of conditions, arising from the peculiar ch 

 of the soil in which it lives. The condition of the low lands where it 

 finds it- station may bring it into any one of several widely divergenl 

 conditi I. with very Blight variations of position. I "i-li to trace 



Beets of these changes of condition upon the peculiar projections 

 from tli*- roots, which are commonly known as knees. The8e exen 

 of the roots have received bo little attention from naturalists that it will 

 ■\ t.. premise an account of their variations by some statement 

 rning their nal 

 Along the main roots of the Taxodium, as it exists in the swamps, we 



hi.-li at tir.-t appear as Blight tuberosities on 

 the upper Bide of tb These projections are formed somewhat ir- 



rly, l<ut they frequently occur at intervals of no more than two >t 

 ■ •t" the root The reault <>t" thcae frequent 

 that the root is vertically flattened, presenting in trans- 

 n an elliptical shape, the vertical axis l»iii'_r double or treble 

 1 1 1 « - length of the horizontal a I rtain of these tubercles grow more 



rapidly than the others, and present a curiously dentate appearai 

 that the ro >t. seen I t" the length, reminds one of the jaw of 



•:.in reptile. This 1 i K • ■ nhanccd by the (act that the pro- 



first sharply conical and slightly bent back towards the 

 i u vcrj rapidly until they Lift 



