2 BULLETIN 272, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



most of our forest trees. Naturally, however, it occurs in com- 

 mercially important quantities only in regions where logging is diffi- 

 cult and expensive. 



Because of its power to develop special organs or parts, cypress 

 possesses unusual ability to adapt itself to conditions of soil and 

 water generally considered extremely unfavorable to tree growth. 

 As a result, the tree occurs in various forms differing quite widely 

 in respect to leaf, bark, shape, size, and to a limited extent, in wood 

 characteristics. In soft, unstable soils and locations subject to 

 periods of high water, cypress develops peculiar knees which appear 

 to serve the double function of organs for breathing and anchorage. 

 Although its home is in unstable soils, the tree is seldom if ever 

 thrown by wind. 



Cypress is interesting, botanically, as one of the few surving mem- 

 bers of a race of trees which was prominent in geologic times. Among 

 its associates were the redwoods of California. Only two other close 

 relatives are known, one an evergreen cypress on the tablelands of 

 Mexico and the other a tree occurring in China. 



Cypress is readily grown from seed and is well adapted to nursery 

 practice. By many authorities it is considered one of the most beau- 

 tiful and ornamental trees for park planting, for which it has been 

 used quite widely over the eastern and central portions of the United 

 States. Although cypress has not been raised in forest plantations 

 on a large commercial scale, experience thus far points to the com- 

 mercial success of forest planting, under certain conditions, in the 

 deeper and fresher soils. 



GEOGRAPHICAL AND COMMERCIAL RANGE. 



The geographical range of cypress extends from southern New 

 Jersey 1 over the Atlantic coastal plain to Florida, thence south to 

 the extreme southern end of the Florida peninsula, 2 and westward 

 through the Gulf Coast region nearly to the Mexican border in 

 Texas, and up the central Mississippi Valley to southern Illinois and 

 Indiana. This range covers all of Florida, Mississippi, and Louis- 

 iana, the southern half of Georgia, and Alabama, and lesser portions 

 of 11 other States. Locally, cypress is confined strictly to river and 

 interior swamps, wet depressions, and stream banks. 



The commercial range of cypress is much more restricted than 

 the botanical range. The district of heavy commercial stands cen- 

 ters in the lower Mississippi Valley and Florida, where deep swamps 

 abound. The large coastal river and isolated inland swamp dis- 

 tricts are regions of important commercial production. These in- 



1 Staler, Dr. N. S., Memoirs of the Museum of Comparative Zoology, Harvard University, Vol. XVI 

 No. 1, p. 11; also Witmer Stone, "Plants of Southern New Jersey," Report of New Jersey State Museum 

 for 1910, p. 151. 



2 Harper, Roland M. 



