110 



SYLVAN SKETCHES. 



rivers and lakes, that are covered great part of the year 

 with two or three feet depth of water ; and four or five feet 

 higher up, is greatly enlarged by prodigious buttresses 

 or pilasters, which in full grown trees project on every 

 side to such a distance, that several men might easily 

 hide themselves in the hollows between. Each pilaster 

 terminates under ground in a very large strong serpen- 

 tine root, which strikes off, and branches every way just 

 under the surface of the earth. From the top of the 

 buttresses, the tree, "as it were, takes another beginning, 

 forming a grand straight column, eighty or ninety feet 

 high ; wlien it divides every way around into an extensive 

 flat horizontal top like an umbrella, where the eagles 

 have their secure nests, and cranes and storks their tem- 

 porary resting places : and what adds to the magnificence 

 of their appearance, is the streams of long moss that hang 

 from the lofty limbs, and float in the winds. This is 

 their majestic appearance when standing alone in large 

 rice plantations, or thinly planted on the banks of great 

 rivers.^' 



The Arbor Vitae-leaved Cypress (C^pt^essus thyoides), 

 or as some call it, the White Cedar, is also an American, 

 and grows to a considerable size, though with us it seldom 

 exceeds fifteen feet ; or if raised from cuttings, ten feet. 

 Loureiro says, that in China or Cochin China, although 

 a native of those places, it does not grow higher than 

 eight feet. The branches are numerous, and stand 

 two ways, naturally forming themselves into regular 

 heads ; the leaves are evergreen, flat, sharp, very short, 

 and imbricated : the fruit is blue, and not larger than 

 that of the juniper. 



This tree requires eighty years^ growth from the seed, 

 before it is fit for timber; and as the number of these 



