276 Horticulture near Philadelphia. 



Should you deem the foregoing remarks worthy of a place 

 in your much respected Magazine, you would oblige me by 

 inserting them ; and I shall from time to time furnish you 

 with an account of the progress of gardening in this and the 

 neighbouring states. 



I am, Sir, yours, &c. 

 Bartram Gardens. Nov. 1831. William Wynne. 

 



Of Bartram's Botanic Garden on the Schuylkill, noticed in the preceding 

 remarks, we have previously (Vol. VII. p. 665.) presented some interest- 

 ing historical particulars. The above mention of the prodigious magnitude 

 which the deciduous cypress attains in America, will render interesting 

 some particulars to which we have access, on the characteristics of this 

 majestic tree in its native forests; they are these: — "The cypress (Cu- 

 pressus disticha L., Schubert.vz disticha Mirbel, Taxodium distichum 

 Richard) is an important tree. It begins to be seen on the wet lands 

 near the mouth of the Ohio, and is, with the swamp gum, the most com- 

 mon tree in the deep swamps from that point to the Gulf of Mexico. It 

 is a tree of a very singular character. Under its shade arises a multitude 

 of curiously shaped knobs, called cypress knees. These are regular cone- 

 like protuberances, in height and circumference not unlike tall and taper- 

 ing bee hives. The tree itself springs from a knob or knee of this kind, 

 of an enlarged size, and, at the surface of the ground, of thrice the circum- 

 ference of the proper trunk. This conical foundation of the tree rises of 

 the height of from 6 to 10 ft. ; and from its apex towers the main trunk of 

 the tree, with scarce any diminution in its circumference, for a length of 

 60 or 80 ft." But we must leaye Mr. Flint to pursue the account in his 

 own words : — 



" \ Very near its top, it begins to throw out multitudes of horizontal 

 branches, which interlace with those of the adjoining trees; and, when 

 bare of leaves, have an air of desolation and death, more easily felt than 

 described. In the season of vegetation, the leaves are short, fine, and of a 

 verdure so deep as almost to seem brown ; giving an indescribable air of 

 funereal solemnity to this singular tree. A cypress forest, when viewed 

 from the adjacent hills, with its numberless interlaced arms, covered with 

 this dark brown foliage, has the aspect of a scaffolding of verdure in the 

 air. It grows, too, in deep and sickly swamps, the haunts of fever, mus- 

 quitos, moccasin snakes, alligators, and all loathsome and ferocious ani- 

 mals, that congregate far from the abodes of man, and seem to make com- 

 mon cause with nature against him. The cypress loves the deepest, most 

 gloomy, inaccessible, and inundated swamps ; and south of 33° is generally 

 found covered with the sable festoons of long moss, hanging, as it seems, 

 a shroud of mourning wreaths almost to the ground. It seems to flourish 

 best where water covers its roots for half the year. When the water rises 

 from 8 to 10 ft. from the overflow of rivers, the apex of the tree's buttock is 

 just on a level with the surface of the water. It is then, in many places, 

 that they cut it. The negroes surround the tree in periogues, and thus get 

 at the trunk above the huge and hard buttock, and fell it with comparative 

 ease. They cut off the straight shaft, as suits their purpose, and float it to a 

 raft, or the nearest high grounds. Unpromising as are the places and the 

 circumstances of its growth, no tree of the country where it is found is so 

 extensively useful. It is free from knots, is easily wrought, and makes 

 excellent planks, shingles, and timber of all sorts. It is very durable, and 

 incomparably the most valuable tree in the southern country of this valley. 

 It is a fortunate circumstance, that it inhabits the most gloomy and inacces- 



