THE SOUTHERN CYPRESS. ie 
logical period, as arms and bays of the ocean, extended far into what 
is now the Coastal Plain and great central valley. 
LONGEVITY. 
Cypress attains so great an age that the life periods of virgin stands 
are better spoken of in terms of centuries than of decades. Trees 
from 400 to 600 years old are very common, and those from 600 to 900 
years are scattered through most virgin cypress stands. Individual 
trees 750, 820, and 845 years old were noted in the Okefinokee Swamp, 
915 years in southern Louisiana, and about 1,200 years in the Flint | 
River in southwestern Georgia.! Roth determined the age of a cy- 
press near the Santee River in South Carolina? as over 1,200 years. 
There is considerable evidence that the greatest ages are reached in 
the region from South Carolina to northern Florida in the nonallu- 
vial and slightly acid swamps subject to only slight differences in 
water level. The age attained seems to be limited chiefly by the 
ability of the tree to resist the attacks of fungi and force of the wind. 
Old trees die backward or downward during a period usually of one 
to three or four centuries. The last stage is usually a hollow cylinder 
_ consisting of sapwood from which the heart has been removed by 
decay (Pl. III). It is not improbable that the ages of these hollow 
veteran cypresses range from 1,000 to 2,000 years. 
SIZE. 
The prevailing size of mature trees in ordinary situations 1s some- 
where about 3 to 5 feet in diameter at breastheight (44 feet above 
the ground) by from 100 to 120 feet in height. In the highly acid 
sous of ponds and poorly drained, flat swamps the average maxi- 
mum size is about 2 feet in diameter by from 50 to 70 feet in 
height. The largest trees scattered on ordinary sites are 7 to 8 feet 
in diameter. The maximum diameter for cypress is about 12 feet 
measured at breastheight. Maximum heights of from 140 to 150 
feet are occasionally reached. In all cases, however, the culmina- 
_ tion in height comes from one to four centuries earlier than the 
greatest diameter. The trunks of the trees of largest diameters are. 
usually hollow at the base and more or less broken at the top. 
FORM. 
In form, cypress is a tall, straight-stemmed tree (Pl. I). In 
regions of prolonged inundations the tree usually develops a high, 
1Ages very similar to the coast redwood of California, Sequoia sempervirens Endl. 
2 Forest Service Circular 19, p. 3. | 
3 See also discussion of volume on p. 41. 
4 Sargent, C. S., ‘“Manual of the Trees of North America,” p. 72. 
