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PINETUM BRITANNICUM. 
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hold of some rocks on the bottom, it boldly defies the force and action of the water. These Cypresses 
on the Rio Bravo, commencing at the mouth of the Salaclo, extend as far down as Beaver Islands, just 
below Roma, where they make their last appearance in the channel on the Mexican side, footing in 
water from 14 to 15 feet in depth.” 
On the east, its range extends through Maryland, Virginia, North and South Carolina, Georgia, and 
Florida, turning by Alabama and Louisiana up the Mississippi. Beyond Norfolk, its limits coincide exactly 
with those of the Pine barrens, and in the Carolinas and Georgia it occupies a great part of the swamps 
which border the river after they have found their way from among the mountains and have entered the 
low lands. 
East Florida is similar in its aspects to the maritime parts of the Southern States, except that the soil 
is in general more uniform ; hence the long-leaved Pine and the Cypress are accompanied by less variety of 
trees, and are, consequently, more abundant—the one on the low grounds and the other on the uplands. 
History . —The genera Sequoia, Tax odium, and Glyptostrobus are most nearly allied to each other in 
structure, and they are also most closely associated with each other in their history during past geological 
epochs. They form a natural group, the Taxodineae , which passed the flower of its existence in the last 
times of the chalk, and in the tertiary, more especially the Miocene epoch. The Cunninghamias , which 
are also allied to them, appeared first, then the Sequoias , and, lastly, the Taxodia and Glyptostrobi. During 
these epochs, many species flourished which have left their remains in various parts of Europe, Greenland, 
and North America: all are now extinct with one or two exceptions; and even the genera have all 
but vanished. There only remain one or two modern representatives of each genus, and each of these 
genera, with the exception of Taxodium , is confined with its species to a very limited space—the Cun¬ 
ninghamias and Glyptostrobi to Japan and China, and the Sequoias to about 120 miles in California. A few 
occur in the southern hemisphere, which form the genus A rthro tax is ; but none are now to be found in 
Europe or the extreme northern parts of America, where they formerly abounded. The whole group is 
verging to extinction. In them we probably see the lingering remains of an antient type about to disappear 
from the face of the globe. 
The family of Taxodinece (including in it for the present purpose the allied genus Cunninghamia ) 
underwent, in antient geological times, a succession of phases of development. According to the observations 
of M. Saporta, first one type appeared, and after flourishing and continuing dominant for a time, gradually 
diminished and gave its place up to another without, however, wholly disappearing. It was about the middle 
of the chalk epoch that the Cunninghamias and Sequoias first appeared ; and after having given rise, 
during several consecutive periods, to a rich collection of forms, they declined in their turn in Europe at 
the moment when Taxodium and Glyptostrobus began to spread, only to disappear themselves from our 
Continent towards the end of the tertiary epoch; and it is to be observed that Taxodium , as it appeared 
latest, also occupies a greater extent of surface at the present day than its more antient predecessors. 
The Sequoias and Cunninghamias , the first in order of date respectively, are confined now to a comparatively 
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diminutive area in California, China, and Japan. 
The most widely spread species of Taxodium in these antient epochs was one first named Phyllites 
dubius by Sternberg, and afterwards Taxodites dubius by U nger, Goeppert,, and subsequent authors. 
When these generic names were made to receive it, it was supposed that everything found in the formation 
where they occurred must, of necessity, be distinct from modern types ; and when a fossil form was met 
with which looked like an existing one, its similarity was acknowledged by giving it a name like that of the 
latter, but a different termination,- indicating that it was fossil. Thus, a fossil Pinus was named Pinites , a 
fossil Abies , Abietites —and a fossil Taxodium , Taxodites . This practice has, however, now been broken 
through, chiefly by the instrumentality of Professor Heer of Zurich, who, inter alia, in his “ Flora Tertiaria 
Helvetica,” has recognized the Taxodites dubius as being positively nothing but a Taxodium —the fossil 
remains 
