FOREST TREES 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. 
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