
340 The Amerwan Naturalist. [April, 
show that the aérating organ of the Cypress really aérates to an extent 
sufficient to make it of material advantage to the plant. 
It was long ago observed that no knees are developed when the tree 
grows in upland upon a firm bottom, in which ordinary simple roots 
can obtain in the ordinary way the hold necessary to resist overturning 
forces, and where there is no stratum of water to transport food. So 
conservative is nature, that she reverts to an original or adopts a 
simpler form of root even in a single generation if the need for the 
more complicated arrangement ceases to exist. 
Finally, I may perhaps be permitted to add an observation regard- 
ing the roots of other trees that trench upon the same soils affected by 
the Cypress and often take advantage of the anchors it sets so boldly 
in treacherous bottoms. These trees project their cable-like, flexible 
‘roots in every direction horizontally, interlacing continually until a 
fabric is woven on the surface of the soft earth like the tangled web of 
a gigantic basket. Out of this close wicker-work, firmly attached to 
it, and dependent for their support upon its integrity, rise the tree 
trunks, Thus slowly, and by a community of growth and action, a 
structure is formed that supplies for each tree a means of resisting the 
storms. Such communities of trees, provided with ordinary roots, 
advance against and overcome enemies where singly they would perish 
in the conflict. The cyclone, the loose sand, the morass—these are 
the enemies they contend with, as it were, in unbroken phalanx, shoul- 
der to shoulder, their shields locked, their spears bristling against the } 
foe ; but the graceful plumed Cypress, the knight-errant of the sylvan 4 
host, bearing with him his trusty anchor—the emblem of Hope—goes | 
forth alone and defiant, afar from his fellows, scorning the methods of 
his vassals, and planting himself boldly amid a waste of waters, where 
no other tree dare venture, stands, age after age, erect, isolated, but 
ever ready to do battle with the elements. Twenty centuries of driving 
rain and snow and fierce hurricane beat upon his towering form, and a 
yet he stands there, the stern, gray and solitary sentinel of the morass, 
clinging to the quaking earth with the grasp of Hercules, to whom : 
men were ama temples when his wardenship began. 
5 The “ Chemical Theory" of the Cypress knee seems to be but a revival of the elabo- 
rate hypothesis of Dickinson and Brown, published in ‘cone memoir on 7. distichum in 
the American Journa Science and Arts, in January, 1848. cores in dustrious of 
servers discard = i i en 



> A D e a a N E 23 
Pa NAI ene cee eee ira is en 
e spongy 
and, strangely h, even the eading base o singe phair 
with the a Porat 1 that the sree ere and most celebrated | lighthouse i in the world— 
: — eg owedly m after 
of withstanding the — shocks of the En lish Channel. By means of a curious draw- 
ing they sho ollen portions of the base rise " to the top of the highest water 
level, which ine in some instanc ces, attain an n elevation of at least gery feet; ” 
thus continuing the functions ure of the knees, “up the f the tree 
to the atmos: re ag 





