109 



the cypress. Even from the highway one can see that none oi 

 the trees have the flat top that characterizes both species of 

 Taxodium in old age, 6 and one might infer from that that the 

 trees had been planted by some early settler, perhaps within 

 100 years. This neighborhood, known as Bucksville, has been 

 settled something over 100 years, and in a cemetery close by 

 there are several tombstones dated between 1830 and 1840. But 

 just what motive the settlers could have had for planting a 

 grove of cypress in a swampy place, about thirty miles from any 

 other known locality for the species, is not clear. 



Interior of the Bucksville cypress swamp, Tuscaloosa County, showing two 

 of the larger trees, many smaller ones, and numerous knees a foot or less in 

 height. Jan. 29, 1933. 



On going into the swamp I found that about half a dozen of 

 the trees were decidedly larger than the rest, about five feet in 

 diameter at the ground and three feet above the enlarged butt, 

 and those may be several hundred years old, though Taxodium, 

 like many other trees, grows faster when it has plenty of room 

 than when it has strong competition from other trees. Curiously 

 enough, these larger trees all have many dead limbs down to 

 within a few feet of the ground, which strongly suggests that they 

 were once in a comparatively open place, and the lower limbs 



6 See Science II. 36: 760-761. Nov. 29, 1912; Geol. Surv. Ala. Monog. 9: 

 61, 62, 1928. 



