glyptostrobus heterophyllus. 217 



in rich moist soil it makes from 5 to 6 feet in six or eight years 

 from seed, and about 15 feet in from twelve to fifteen years * its 

 average yearly growth not often exceeding 12 inches. The deciduous 

 Cypress should never be planted in dry elevated situations. 



Taxodium from rafos (taxos) the Yew, and elSoe (eidos) " external 

 appearance," from the resemblance of the foliage to that of the Yew • t 

 and SiortxoQ (distichos) " arranged in double rows." 



Taxodium Mexicanum, or T. Montexumce, is the Mexican repre- 

 sentative of the deciduous Cypress, from which it is distinguished "by 

 the less size, fresher green, and more slender and tapering character 

 of its twigs and leaves." \ It is too tender for the climate of Great 

 Britain; in its native country it attains a greater size than the 

 common form in the United States. There is a gigantic specimen at 

 Santa Maria del Tule, in Oaxaca, which has a circumference of 124 

 Spanish feet, or about 115 feet English. Another tree of historic 

 interest stands in the Garden of Chapultepec, near Mexico ; it is 

 called "the Cypress of Montezumae" by Humboldt, and it is the tree 

 under which Cortes, the Spanish Conqueror of Mexico, passed the 

 night § after the defeat and expulsion of the Spaniards from the city. 



Glyptostrobus heterophyllus.— A shrub or low tree from 8 to 

 10 feet high, with an erect stem. The branches are scattered or 

 alternate, the lower ones spreading or slightly decumbent, those 

 above partially erect and spreading. The leaves are of various 

 forms; in the primary branches they are scale-like, on the secondary 

 ones linear-subulate, obscurely three-angled, spreading, and of a dull 

 green colour. The cones are small elongated ovoid bodies, less 

 than an inch long, composed of closely imbricated scales, the 

 fertile ones bearing two winged seeds. 



Habitat. — China, in the neighbourhood of Canton, and along the 

 banks of the river Whampoa. The limits of its distribution have 

 not yet been ascertained. 



Introduced into Europe early in the present century. 



The special interest attached to Glyptostrobus heterophyllus is purely 

 scientific. It is the only representative of the genus at present known, 



* Loudon, Arb. et Frut., p. 2484. 



+ The resemblance is much' greater in the Californian Redwood, formerly called Taxodium 

 sempervirens. 



J Lawson, Pinetum Britawnicum, part 36. 



§ La noche triste. "La battalia nocturna en la calzada fue la mas horrorosa y funesta 

 para los espafioles, & hizo en ellos impresion tan dolorosa, que desde entonces le dieron el 

 sobrenombre de noche triste." — Solis Conguista de Mejico, Lib, iv„ cap. 19. 



