The Bald Cypress standing near a small ditch in Atterbury's meadow is a very beautiful, tall, conical tree, over 80 feet high, with an excurrent trunk which is very large and ridged near the ground. It tapers rapidly upward, so that the circumference is only about half as great at the height of 6 feet, where the branches begin. The branches are very numerous and, considering the size of the trunk, very small; the largest of them being only about 2 inches through. They all slope upward rapidly, but the tip and fine spray show a tendency to droop; the fine thread-like branchlets, bearing the leaves of the year, are almost all pendulous.
The bark is very rough, thick and soft, as I found in pinning on the bit of paper to measure the height of the tree, when I could easily press the pin in to its head.
The leaves are very small and delicate, and as they extend out in two ranks from the thread-like twigs, look much like fine ferns. The small linear leaves and the spray drop off together in the autumn, as I can find much of last year's foliage on the ground still fastened to the twigs. I could not see any flowers, though I looked from early in the spring till the middle of the summer; then I saw a few of the globular green cones, almost an inch in diameter, showing that it had bloomed. Next spring I shall begin to look for the blossoms before the leaves come out.
On the ground, about 6 feet from the tree, there are four very strange knobs which I did not notice till I stumbled over one of them. They seem to grow from the roots, and are quite soft and reddish in color.
No. 3.
I have found twenty-two Bald Cypresses in Trenton; they are all beautiful conical trees, and seem to grow well in almost any soil, as I have found some in very wet places and some in dry, sandy soil. They look from their position as though they had been planted out, and as I have found none in the woods around the town, they are probably not native in this region. They are from 50 to nearly 100 feet tall. I found one 96 feet high. They are all of a very symmetrical, conical form, and pointed at the top; in no case has the trunk divided into branches, and on the old trees the trunk enlarges curiously near the ground, the lower portion being very rough with ridges. The bark is very thick and rough, and is so soft that a pin can readily be pushed through it to the wood. The branches are very numerous and small, and are not regularly arranged in whorls like most of the narrow-leaved trees. These branches all slope upward from the trunk, the ends having a tendency to bend downward and make delicate drooping spray, with very small, linear, entire leaves only ½ inch long. Four of the largest trees show fruit, and each of these has only about a half-dozen of the globular cones. Only a few of the trees—those in the wettest places—have the knobs on the ground near the base.
No. 4.
The Bald Cypress (Taxodium distichum) is a common tree, a native of the Gulf States, growing very abundantly in the wettest swamps of that region. The northern limit of the tree in its wild state is said to be central Delaware and southern Illinois, but it can be successfully cultivated in the region around Boston. There are several named varieties, one with the leaves but slightly spreading from the spray, and the whole of the branches showing a decided weeping tendency, so that it is called the Weeping Cypress. The knobs from the roots, called Cypress-knees, grow very abundantly around all the trees in the southern swamps. These grow to the height of from 2 to 4 feet, and are very thick, sometimes as much as 5 feet. They are hollow, and are occasionally used for bee-hives.
It is said to be a broad, flat-topped tree, spreading its top over other trees. This seems very strange, as none of those in Trenton, N. J., show such a tendency, but are quite spire-shaped. The wood is light, soft, straight-grained, and is said to be excellent for shingles and for other purposes. It generally has a dark reddish or brownish hue. It is a large tree, growing to the height of 140 feet. The trunk is sometimes 12 feet through near the ground. The flowers of the tree are in small catkins, blooming before the leaves expand in the early spring; in February, in South Carolina.