CHAP. CXIII.

CONFFERAS. CUPRE'SSUS.

2483

towards the autumn. Most of these shoots have their points killed everywinter, and many of them are entirely destroyed. 4. T. d. tortuosum pen-dulum, with the leaves on the young shoots tortuous, and the branches pendu-lous. There is a very elegant specimen of this tree at White Knights. Withrespect to the T. sinense of cultivators, we have not been able to discover inwhat it differs from T. nutans.

Description. A tree, in North America, 120 ft. high. Trunk very thick,often from 25 ft. to 40 ft. in circumference at the base. Branchlets veryslender, elegantly pinnate, bark brownish. Leaves pectinate and distichous;spreading horizontally, from being twisted at the base ; linear, mucronulate,flat, 1-nerved (nerve somewhat depressed above); glabrous on both sides,light green ; margins acute, exterior somewhat convex, J in. or more in length,about 1 line broad. Male catkins roundish, in a racemose panicle; scalesvery short, obtuse, concave, keeled, membranaceous on the margin. Galbulusroundish or roundish-oval, of the size of a pigeon’s egg. The tree, thoughpyramidal in form when it is young, yet, when full-grown, has a spreadingbroad head, somewhat in the manner of that of an old cedar of Lebanon.There are but few trees in Britain which have assumed this character; but,according Michaux, it is common in the swamps of America ; and it has alsobegun to show itself in some of the old trees at Whitton and Syon. Thebark of trees which grow near the natural beds of the rivers, and are half theyear surrounded with water to the height of 3 ft. or 4 ft., is lighter-colouredthan that of trees which stand in places which the waters do not reach; thewood, also, is whiter, less resinous, and less heavy. These are called whitecypresses. The others, of which the bark is browner, and the wood heavier,more resinous, and of a duskier hue, are called black cypresses; whence wehave, in some catalogues, T. d. nigrum; but this name we have not given in ourlist of varieties, as it is obviously only that of a variation. The wood is fine-grained, and, after being for some time exposed to the light, becomes of a reddishcolour : it possesses great strength and elasticity, and is lighter and less re-sinous than that of the pines. It has also a greater power of resisting heatand moisture. The foliage is open, light, and of a fresh agreeable tint; eachfrond, or young shoot, is 4 in. or 5 in. long, and consists of two parallel rowsof leaves upon a common stem. The leaves are small, fine, and somewhatarched, with the convex side outwards. In the autumn, they change from alight green to a dull red, and soon after fall off. The deciduous cypress blos-soms in Carolina about the 1st of February. The male catkins are producedin flexible pendulous aments, and the female in very small bunches. Thecones are about as large as the point of the thumb, hard, roundish, and of anuneven surface. The seeds are small, ligneous, and of irregular shapes, witha cylindrical kernel: they are ripe in October, and retain their productivepower two years. (Lam6., Mtch.c.. and obs.)

The deciduous cypress, in America, attains its largest size in the swamps ofthe southern states and the Floridas, on the deep miry soil of which a new layeris every year deposited by the floods. These trees, which are sometimes 40 ft.in circumference at the base, are, however, always at least three times as thickthere as they are in any other part of the trunk. The base is usually hollow forthree quarters of its bulk ; and its surface is longitudinally furrowed with deeptortuous channels. In consequence of the hollowness and comparative worth-lessness of the lower part of the trunk, the negroes raise themselves on scaf-folds 5 ft. or 6 ft. from the ground, when the trees are to be felled, in order tocut off only the sound part of the tree. The roots of large trees, particularly insituations subject to inundation, are charged with conical protuberances, com-monly from 1 ft. 6in. to 2ft. high, and sometimes from 4 ft. to 5 ft. in thickness :they are always hollow, smooth on the surface, and covered with a reddish bark,like the roots, which they resemble also in the softness of their wood. Michauxsays that '* no cause can be assigned for their existence : they are peculiar to thedeciduous cypress, and begin to appear when it is only 20ft. or 25 ft. high. Theyare made use of by the negroes for bee-hives.” He adds that they exhibit

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