TAXODIUM DISTICHUM. 9 
island is attached to the residence of Mr Mercer of Denham Lodge, but it and the trees can be well seen 
from the bridge that crosses the Colne, just at the foot of the main street of Uxbridge, and the trees are well 
worth a visit on purpose to see them. One is upwards of 50 feet in height, and 7 feet in circumference 
at 2 feet from the ground ; and the other upwards of 60 feet high, but the latter was injured by a hurricane 
about 1872, and it was somewhat stripped of its branches, which it has not yet quite recovered. Its foliage 
is, consequently, somewhat sparse, but the other is a perfect beauty—thickly clothed and of great symmetry. 
They are about fifty years of age, but have never borne cones. 
Loudon mentions a number of other trees, in the neighbourhood of London, as being remarkable, but 
of these we have no recent record. The most remarkable were at Whitton, at Purser’s Cross, at Stanmore 
Priory, at Gunnersbury Park, and at Ditton Park, of which the height then ran from 45 to 80 feet. 
It appears to have been introduced into Scotland about 1746. Loudon quotes Dr Walker (“ Essays,” 
p. 80) as speaking, in 1776, of a tree feathered down to the ground, at Loudoun Castle, in Ayrshire, which 
was then thirty years old, and 25 feet high. He said it was the only considerable tree of the kind in North 
Britain. At first it was kept in a greenhouse, but on planting out it was found that this had been an 
unnecessary precaution, as it stood the winter very well. 
On the whole, it may be said to be hardy in this country. Mr Palmer’s tables of the effects of the 
severe winter of 1860-61 on it, shew that out of trees reported on from twenty-nine places in England, 
they were killed at one only, much injured at another, injured at four, and not injured at twenty-three. At 
those reported on from Scotland and Ireland (two in each), none were injured. 
It does not fruit very freely in Britain. Miller mentions a tree in the gardens of Sir Abraham Janser, 
at Wimbledon, in Surrey, which had produced a great quantity of cones for some years, which ripened in 
favourable seasons—a degree of fecundity which he attributes to the tree having been thrown back by trees 
transplanted when very large. Mr Lambert (“ Pinus,” eel. 2, p. 117) shews the rareness of its fruiting by 
the exuberance of his satisfaction on procuring cones,' “ On my way from the country in the beginning of 
November 1823, I was fortunate in meeting with a single tree of Taxodium distichum bearing plenty of ripe 
fruit, in the garden of a blacksmith, opposite the King’s Arms, Bagshot. I was delighted with my discovery, 
as I never had before the pleasure of meeting with this interesting tree in fruit, a circumstance of very rare 
occurrence in this country. At the parsonage in the vicinity of Bagshot, there are two trees of the Taxodium, 
even larger than the one in the blacksmith’s garden, but on them I was able to find a single cone only.” It 
seems, however, somewhat uncertain in its fruiting; for instance, a tree at Sedbury Park, near Chepstow, 
which is described as very luxuriant and feathering to the ground, produced fruit when forty years old, but no 
seed in the cones. The occurrence of trees in fruit seems to be not much more frequent at the present day. 
It grows well on the Continent and in the south of France, and in Italy there are some very fine trees. 
Those at Padua and Naples especially deserve attention. 
Two varieties were described by Brongnart under the names of Taxodium microphyllum and 
T ascendens , both from North America, which appear to be only varieties of the common species, with 
a slightly different habit or smaller leaves. 
Under cultivation in Europe, it, like most other Conifers, also indulges in occasional variations. M. 
Carriere mentions and figures three varieties with sufficiently notable differences of the cones. The first 
(fig- 7) he calls Taxodium distichum tuberculatum, another (fig. 8) he calls Taxodmm distichum protuberans, 
and a third (fig. 9) Taxodium distichum conicum. We reproduce these as illustrations of the manner in 
which this species sports, so that it is unnecessary to give any additional description of them. 
The great essential for the successful cultivation of the deciduous Cypress, besides the climate, is a rich 
soil and a well-sheltered site, with a good deal of moisture, not stagnant, but frequently renewed and rapidly 
passing away—in other words, with good drainage. These conditions being more generally found where 
the geological formation is sandstone, that is probably the reason why a sandstone district is preferred ; a 
clay subsoil is too apt to be defective in drainage, and a chalk soil is too dry. 
[ 30 ] c 
The 
