CYPRESS
(Taxodium Distichum)
The name cypress has been used quite loosely in this country and the old world, and botanists have taken particular care to explain what true cypress is. It is of no advantage in the present case to join in the discussion, and it will suffice to give the American cypresses according to the authorized list published by the United States Forest Service. Two genera, one having two and the other six species, are classed as cypress. These are Bald Cypress (Taxodium distichum), Pond Cypress (Taxodium imbricarium), Monterey Cypress (Cupressus macrocarpa), Gowen Cypress (Cupressus goveniana), Dwarf Cypress (Cupressus pygmÆa) Macnab Cypress (Cupressus macnabiana), Arizona Cypress (Cupressus arizonica), and Smooth Cypress (Cupressus glabra). The first two grow in the southern states, and the others in the Far West. Bald cypress, which is generally known simply as cypress in the region where it grows, is more important as a source of lumber than are all the others combined. It probably supplies ninety-nine per cent of all cypress sold in this country. Its range is from southern Delaware to Florida, westward to the Gulf coast region of Texas, north through Louisiana, Arkansas, eastern Mississippi and Tennessee, southeastern Missouri, western Kentucky and sparsely in southern Illinois and southwestern Indiana. It is a deep swamp tree, and it is never of much importance far from lagoons, inundated tracts, and the low banks of rivers. Water that is a little brackish from the inwash of tides does not injure the tree, but the presence of a little salt is claimed by some to improve the quality of the wood. It is lumbered under difficulties. The deep water and miry swamps where it grows best must be reckoned with. Some of the ground is not dry for several years at a time. Neither felling nor hauling is possible in the manner practiced in the southern pineries. Owing to the great weight of the green wood, it will not float unless killed by being girdled for a year or more in advance of its being felled. In the older logging operations, cypress was girdled and snaked out to waterways and floated to the mills. Lately many cypress operations are carried on by the building of railroads through the swamps, which are largely on piling and stringers, although occasionally earth fills are utilized. The usual size of mature cypress ranges from seventy-five to 140 feet in height and three to six in diameter.
The wood is light, soft, rather weak, moderately stiff, and the grain is usually straight. The narrow annual rings indicate slow growth. The summerwood is comparatively broad and is slightly resinous; medullary rays are numerous and obscure. The wood is light to dark brown, the sapwood nearly white. At one time specimens of the wood in the markets of the world were known as black or white cypress, according as they sank or floated. Much of the dark cypress wood is now known as black cypress in the foreign markets, where it is employed chiefly for tank and vat building. Individual specimens of the wood in some localities are tinted in a variety of shades and some of the natural designs are extremely beautiful.
The wood is reputed to be among the most durable in this country when exposed to soil and weather. Some of it deserves that reputation, but other does not. Well-authenticated cases are cited where cypress has remained sound many years—in some instance a hundred or more—when subjected to alternate dampness and dryness. Such conditions afford severe tests. In other cases cypress has been known to decay as quickly as pine.
Historical cases from the old world are sometimes cited to show the wonderful lasting properties of cypress. Doors and statues, exposed more or less to weather, are said to have stood many centuries. The evidence has little value as far as this wood is concerned. In the first place, the long records claimed are subjects for suspicion; and in the second place, it was not the American cypress that was used—and probably no cypress—but the cedar of Lebanon.
Sound cypress logs have been dug from deep excavations near New Orleans, and geologists believe they had lain there 30,000 years. That would be a telling testament to endurance were it not that any other wood completely out of reach of air would last as long.
The estimated stand of cypress in the South is about 20,000,000,000 feet. The annual cut, including shingles, exceeds 1,000,000,000 feet. New growth is not coming on. The traveler through the South occasionally sees a small clump of little cypresses, but such are few and far between. It was formerly quite generally believed that cypress in deep swamps, where old and venerable stands are found, was not reproducing, and that no little trees were to be seen. It was argued from this, that some climatic or geographic change had taken place, and that the present stand of cypress would be the last of its race. More careful investigation, however, has shown that the former belief was erroneous. Seedling cypresses are found occasionally in the deepest swamps. Probably cypress which has not been disturbed by man is reproducing as well now as at any time in the past. The tree lives three or four centuries, and if it leaves one seedling to take its place it has done its part toward perpetuating the species. Fire, the mortal enemy of forests, seldom hurts cypress, because the undergrowth is not dry enough to burn.
The uses of cypress are so nearly universal that a list is impossible. In Illinois alone it is reported for seventy-eight different purposes. There is not a state, and scarcely a large wood-using factory, east of the Rocky Mountains which does not demand more or less cypress.
The tree is graceful when young, but ragged and uncouth when old. Though a needleleaf tree, it yearly sheds its foliage and most of its twigs. The fruit is a cone about one inch in diameter; and the seed is equipped with a wing one-fourth inch long and one-eighth inch wide.
When cypress stands in soft ground which most of the time is under water, the roots send up peculiar growths known as knees. They rise from a few inches to several feet above the surface of the mud, and extend above the water at ordinary stages. They are sharp cones, generally hollow. It is believed their function is to furnish air to the tree’s roots, and also to afford anchorage to the roots in the soft mud. When the water is drained away, the knees die.
Cypress is widely planted as an ornament, and a dozen or more varieties have been developed in cultivation.
Pond Cypress (Taxodium imbricarium) so closely resembles bald cypress with which it is associated that the two were once supposed to be the same. Pond cypress averages smaller and its range is more circumscribed. The name pond cypress, by which it is popularly known in Georgia, indicates the localities where it is oftenest found. It is the prevailing cypress in the Okefenoke swamp in southeastern Georgia. The general aspect of the foliage and fruit is the same as of bald cypress. No detailed examination of the wood seems to have been made, but in general appearance it is like the other cypress. It is said that little of it ever gets to sawmills because it grows in situations where logging is inconvenient.
Monterey Cypress (Cupressus macrocarpa). This tree has only one name and that is due to its place of growth on the shores of Monterey bay, California. Its range is more restricted than that of any other American softwood. It does not much exceed 150 acres, though the trees are scattered in a narrow strip for two miles along the coast. They approach so close the breakers that spray flies over them in time of storm. Trees exposed to the sweep of the wind are gnarled and of fantastic shapes. Their crowns are broad and flat like an umbrella, but ragged and unsymmetrical in outline. That form offers least resistance to wind, and most surface to the sun. The trees take the best possible advantage of their opportunities. Tall crowns would be carried away by wind; and the flat tops, with a mass of green foliage, catch all the sunlight possible. They need it, for they grow in fog, and sunshine is scarce. Sheltered trees develop pyramidal tops. It is widely planted in this and other countries, and when conditions are favorable, it is graceful and symmetrical. The largest trees are from sixty to seventy feet tall, others are five or six in diameter; but the tallest trees and the largest trunks seldom go together. The cones are an inch or more in length, and each contains about 100 seeds. The leaves fall the third and fourth years. Wood is heavy, hard, strong, and durable, but is too scarce to be of value as lumber, even if the trunks were suitable for sawlogs. The Monterey cypress is of peculiar interest to botanists and also to physical geographers. The few trees on the shore of Monterey bay appear to be the last remnant of a species which was once more extensive. The ocean is eating away the coast at that point. Fragments of hills, cut sheer down from top to the breakers beneath, are plainly the last remnants of ranges which once extended westward, but have been washed away by the encroaching waves. No one knows how much of the former coast has been destroyed. Apparently the former range of the cypress was principally on land now swallowed up by the encroaching ocean. A mere fringe of the trees—a belt about 200 yards wide along the beach—remains, and the sea is undermining them one by one and carrying them down. So rapidly is the undermining process going on that many large roots of some of the trees are exposed to view.
Arizona Cypress (Cupressus arizonica), as its name implies, is an Arizona tree. It forms considerable forests in the eastern, central, and southern parts of the state, and is found also in Mexico. It grows at elevations up to 6,000 feet. Because of the small population in the region where this cypress grows, it has never been much used, but the size of the trees and the character of the wood fit it for many purposes. Its growth is often quite rapid, and the timber is soft, light, and with well-defined summerwood. Its usual color is gray, but occasionally faint streaks of yellow appear. The leaves fall during the fourth and fifth years; cones are small and flat; and the small seeds are winged. It is believed by persons familiar with Arizona cypress that it will attain considerable importance when the building of railroads and the settlement of the country make the forests accessible. The wood is durable in contact with the soil.
Smooth Cypress (Cupressus glabra) ranges in Arizona and is not believed to have or to promise much importance as a source of lumber supply. Its name was given on account of the smoothness of the bark. It is one of the latest species to be given a place among the cypresses, and was described and named by George B. Sudworth of the United States Forest Service.
Cypress branch
