MONGECIA MONADELPHIA. 
643 
This is the largest, and in some respects, the most remarkable tree in the 
low country of the Southern States. Its usual height is from 90 — 100 feet, 
and though commonly only from 2 — 4 feet in diameter, it is frequently found 
nearly twice that size, and if measured within 3 feet of the surface of the 
ground, its dimensions would be still greater. Its roots for 6 or 7 feet be- 
neath the surface of the ground, appear to be but a continuation of the stem, 
while its small ramifications rise to the surface of the earth, and produce at 
15, 20 or 30 feet from its base, small conical knobs from 1 — 2 feet high, 
which are always hollow, and never discover any signs of vegetation. The 
trunk of this tree for 50 or 60 feet is naked and almost undiminised in size; 
its branches then rise obliquely, and terminate in a fiat or fastigate summit. 
From this peculiar conformation of the branches, a cypress tree can be dis- 
tinguished as far as the eye can reach; while from the fineness of its leaves, 
the comparatively small size of its head, and its massive and extended roots, 
it resists the violence of our autumnal gales more obstinately than any other 
of our forest trees. 
The leaves of the Cypress are small, linear, acute, glabrous, arrayed dis- 
tichally along small deciduous branches, which serve as a common petiole; a 
few are sometimes scattered along the small woody branchlets. The sterile 
flowers in terminal aments. Calyx a scale, ovate-lanceolate, imbricate. Co- 
rolla 0. Filaments 0. Anthers 4, nearly round, sessile. The fertile flo- 
rets in obovate sessiie cones, clustered near the summit of the branches. Ca- 
lyx a scale, ovate-lanceolate, 1 -flowered? / Styles 2, thick. Cone globular, 
with an irregular surface, exuding an aromatic gum. Seeds or Nut angular, 
enclosing a cylindrical kernel which contains the embryo. 
The Cypress grows only in wet miry soils, and it is in situations where a 
wet alluvial soil of 5 or 6 feet deep overlays a bed of sand, that it attains its 
greatest dimensions. It begins to decay at the centre in small vesicular 
cells, from whence, in this state, it is commonly said to be honey-combed at 
heart. From the straightness of its fibre, it is very liable to be “heart- 
shaken.” 
The wood of this tree is soft, rather fine-grained, and when exposed to the 
weather is the most durable of our timber. Where it can be procured easily it 
is preferred to the yellow pine for the frames and coverings of houses; and if 
it were not for its price, would be preferred to the white pine for the inte- 
rior work. It is universally employed for shingles. Nearly all the ca- 
noes or small boats of the country are fabricated out of it. It could be 
employed advantageously in the construction of vessels, and is particu- 
larly sought after for all of those works which, from the rise and fall of the 
tide, or from other circumstances are perpetually exposed to the action of 
heat and moisture. 
Our inhabitants distinguish two varieties of this tree, called from slight 
shades of difference in the colour of the bark and wood, White and Black 
Cypress; the wood of the latter is preferred, and the tree is supposed by 
some to grow in a richer soil. This, however, is but prejudice; the two va- 
rieties are found mingled indiscriminately in the same swamps, and the 
causes of their difference is not understood. 
Var. Imbricaria, Nutt. This is a small tree growing in pine-barren ponds. 
It produces its knobs (Exostoses) more abundantly than the large variety; and 
on its lower branches the leaves are frequently imbricate after the manner of 
the Junipers. But on the upper branches the leaves are often expanded and 
