318 Expedition to the 



This tree is well known in all the southern section of the 

 United States to indicate a low and marshy soil, but not 

 universally one which is irreclaimable. It is rarely if ever 

 met with north of the latitude of 38''. In many respects, 

 particularly in the texture, firmness, and durability of its 

 wood, and in its choice of situation, it resembles the white 

 cedar* of the northern States, but far surpasses it in size, 

 being one of the largest trees in North America. " There 

 is," says Du Pratz, *' a cypress tree at Baton Rouge, which 

 measures twelve yards round, and is of prodigious height." 

 In the cypress swamps few other trees, and no bushes, are 

 seen; and the innumerable conic excrescences called knees 

 which spring up from the roots, resembling the monu- 

 ments in a church yard, give a gloomy and peculiar aspect 

 to the scene. The old error of Du Pratz, with regard to 

 the manner of the reproduction of the cypress, is still main- 

 tained with great obstinacy by numbers of people who never 

 heard of his book. 



" It renews itself," says he," in a most extraordinary man- 

 ner. A short time after it is cut down, a shoot is observed 

 to grow from one of its roots, exactly in the form of a sugar 

 loaf, and this sometimes rises ten feet high before any leaf 

 appears; the branches at length rise from the head of this 

 conical shoot." p. 239. 



We have often been reminded of this account of Du Pratz 

 by hearing the assertion among the settlers, that the cypress 

 never grows from the seed. It would appear, however, that 

 he could have ^een but little acquainted with the tree, or he 

 would have been aware that the conic excrescences in ques- 

 tion spring up and grow during the life of the tree, but 

 never after it is cut down. 



At Little Rock, a village of six or eight houses, we found 

 several of the members of a missionary family destined to 



• Thuja occidentaMs, L. 



