=4. TAXÒDIUM.= The Bald Cypress.
=Taxodium dístichum= (Linnæus) L. C. Richard. Cypress. Plate 7. Large
tall straight trees, up to 18 dm. in diameter and 45 m. high, usually
with a buttressed base which is frequently hollow. In wet situations it
develops steeple-shaped projections from the roots to above the water
level, known as "knees"; bark gray or reddish-brown, separating from the
trunk in long thin narrow strips; shoots light green, smooth, turning
reddish-brown the first year, then a darker brown; leaves spirally
arranged, appearing as if 2-ranked on vegetative shoots, linear, 5-15
mm. long, sessile, acute, yellowish-green, turning brown in the fall and
dropping off; staminate flowers numerous, borne on long terminal
panicles, pistillate flowers solitary in the axils of the leaves; fruit
a cone, globose, about 2.5 cm. in diameter, the surface with some
wrinkles made by the edges of the closely fitting scales; wood light,
soft and straight-grained, rather weak, does not warp or shrink much and
reputed to be very durable when exposed to soil or weather.
=Distribution.=--Along the Atlantic coast from Delaware to Florida and
along the Gulf west to Texas and north along the Mississippi Valley to
Indiana. In Indiana it has a peculiar and limited distribution. The mass
distribution was just north and west of Decker in Knox County.
Collett[6] estimates that 20,000 acres were "covered with a fine forest
of cypress". Wright[7] maps the other places in the southern part of
Knox County where the cypress was known to have occurred. At present the
only cypress in Knox County is in the extreme southwest part of the
county, and is known as Little Cypress swamp. Here it is associated with
such trees as white elm and Schneck's oak. It is believed that it
extended only a few miles north of the Deshee River. Going southward it
has not been seen in Gibson County, and is first noted in Posey County
along the Wabash River in a cypress pond about 12 miles southwest of Mt.
Vernon. Then again in Posey County along the Ohio River on the shores of
Hovey Lake, and in a slough about 3 miles east of Mt. Vernon. It
occurred in a few spots in Vanderburg County along the Ohio River
southwest of Evansville. It again appears in limited numbers along
Cypress Creek a few miles east of Newburg in Warrick County, which is
its eastern[8] known limit.
The cypress in all of its stations is found only in places that are for
the greater part of the year under water.
=Remarks.=--The original stand of cypress in Indiana has practically all
been cut, and the swamps drained and now under cultivation. In the
slough east of Mt. Vernon for several years, thousands of seedlings of
the year have been noted, but for some reason they do not survive a
second year. The present indications are that the cypress will be
extinct in Indiana before many years because practically no small trees
can be found.
[Illustration: Plate 7.