FOREST TEEES AND FOREST SCENERY 



tressed below to form wide, spreading 

 bases. In this, its native home, when 

 it has grown to maturity, it looks far 

 different from the trim, tall pyramid 

 that we see in the park. In place of the 

 lofty spire it bears a broad, flat crown, 

 that is poised upon the tall, fibrous, 

 reddish-gray trunk. Such crowns, 

 if the tree has had room to spread, 

 may measure as much as a hundred 

 feet across ; but where closely pressed 

 at the sides by other trees, they are 

 contracted to much narrower dimen- 

 sions. The foliage is soft in texture 

 as ever, and interspersed with little 

 globular cones. With the coming of 

 winter, however, the sprays of foliage 

 turn brown and fall from the tree, the 

 bald cypress being one of the very few 

 cone-bearers that shed their leaves. 

 42 



