i66 



FLORA AND SYLVA, 



swamp of Sussex county, where trees of 

 the largest size stood until a few years 

 ago. Thence southward near the coast 

 to the shores of Mosquito Inlet and Cape 

 Romano, Florida, through the coast re- 

 gion of the Gulf States to the valley of 

 the Devil River in Texas, and through 

 Lousiana and Arkansas to south-eastern 

 Missouri, eastern Mississippi, and Ten- 

 nessee, Kentucky, southern Illinois, and 

 south-western Indiana. In the South 

 Atlantic and Gulf States, where it attains 

 its largest size, this tree covers great areas 

 of river-swamps from which the water 

 rarely disappears ; in drier situations it 

 grows with the Red Maple, the Water 

 Ash,theLiquidamber, and the Bay, and 

 in the Mississippi valley its associates 

 are the Swamp Poplar and the Water 

 Locust. The glory of the forests of the 

 south, and one of the most valuable and 

 interesting trees of the continent, the 

 Bald Cypress, with its tall massive trunk 

 rising high above waters darkened by 

 the shadow of its great crown draped 

 in streamers of the grey Tillandsia, is 

 an object at once magnificent and 

 mournful." 



"In the great swamps of the Gulf 

 Coast, where the Bald Cypress attains 

 its greatest size, the water is so deep 

 through nearly the whole year that its 

 seeds cannot germinate, and there are 

 no young trees and few small ones grow- 

 ing up to replace the old ones, which are 

 being fast converted into timber. Some 

 of the largest must have reached a great 

 age, for after its earliest years the Bald 

 Cypress grows slowly. When these old 

 trees began their career their seeds must 

 have fallen on ground warmed by the 



Wood. 



sun ; the present depth of water beneath 

 them can be explained only by the^hy- 

 pothesis that the whole Gulf Coast of the 

 United States is gradually sinking. As 

 the trees, when felled green, sink in the 

 water and are lost, it is necessary to kill 

 them standing by "girdling" them the 

 year before. The negro wood-choppers 

 cut through the stems above their swol- 

 len bases, and trim off the branches. The 

 trunks are then floated out during winter 

 when the water is so high that they may 

 be towed into the rivers to the mill. 

 Two kinds of wood are recognised, the 

 black and white. The black is harder 

 and more durable, and is produced near 

 the base of large trees. The difference 

 is due either to age or some unknown 

 individual cause." — Gray. 



' c The wood is light and soft, 

 close, straight-grained, not 

 strong, easily worked, and very durable 

 in contact with the soil. It is light or 

 dark brown, sometimes nearly black, 

 with thin white sapwood, and contains 

 broad, conspicuous, resinous bands of 

 small summer-cells, and numerous very 

 obscure medullary rays. It is largely 

 used in construction and cooperage, and 

 for railway ties, posts, and fences, and 

 is one of the most valuable woods of 

 North America. Most of the wooden 

 houses in Lousiana and the other Gulf 

 States are made from the wood of this 

 tree, and it is now sent in large quan- 

 tities to the northern states, where it is 

 used principally in the making of doors, 

 sashes, balustrades, and the rafters of 

 glass-houses. From the trunks, the In- 

 dians of the lower Mississippi valley for- 

 merly hollowed their canoes." 



