Taxòdium dístichum, Richard. (Southern or Bald Cypress.) Leaves deciduous, flat, linear, ½ to ¾ in. long, in 2 rows on the slender branchlets, forming feather-like spray of a light green color. This whole spray usually falls off in the autumn as though a single leaf. Cones round, closed, hard, 1 in. in diameter. A fine, tall (100 to 125 ft. high), slender, spire-shaped tree with a large, spreading, rigid trunk, 6 to 9 ft. thick, and peculiar conical excrescences (called knees) growing up from the roots. Wild from Maryland south, and cultivated and hardy in the Middle and many of the Northern States.
Var. pendulum.
Var. pendulum, with horizontal branches and drooping branchlets, has the leaves but slightly spreading from the stems, especially when young. Very beautiful; hardy as far north as Massachusetts.
Genus 102. SEQUÓIA.
Flowers monœcious, terminal, solitary, catkins nearly globular. Seeds winged, 3 to 5 under each scale.
S. gigántea.
1. Sequóia gigántea, Torr. (Big or Great Tree of California.) Leaves on the young shoots spreading, needle-shaped, sharp-pointed, scattered spirally around the branchlets; finally scale-shaped, overlapping, mostly appressed, with generally an acute apex, light green in color. Cones oval, 2 to 3 in. long, of about 25 scales. The largest tree known, 300 ft. high, with a trunk nearly 30 ft. through, found in California and occasionally planted east, though with no great success, as it is almost certain to die after a few years.
