Evening star., 1923-01-22
GIANT TREES IN SWAMPS.
Rivals of the Redwoods Found on
the Atlantic TideWater.

AS the depth of the sea produced
for us minerals in great variety and
profusion, so its shadows have been
the great breeding ground Of myriad
species Of animal and plant life. Up
ward through the ages its shallow
encroachments have carried these
forms, crowdins the narrow waters
with them and leaving their remains
to incrust the surface when after
some millions Of years the slow-ris-
ing bosom Of the land carried them
above the steaning waves.
Salt marsh levels and tidewater
swamps have thus today a prodigious
fertility that finds expression in
splendid forms OF renewed life. forms
of great utility to man. writes Win
throp Packard in the Christian Sci
ence Monitor.
one of these is the "tidewater cy-
press" a noble tree which grows only
just above the margins of the tides
| lows the coast line Of North America
from Virginia south to Florida, along
the gulf coast to Texas and up the
valley Of the Messippi river wher-
beginning Of this geological era.
In fact, cypress. because of its
seeming ability to resist the ravages
of time and decay indefinitely. has
been dubbed "the wood eternal
The bald cypress of the tidewater
swamps of the southern United States
grows only with its roots under
water. That they may breathe. these
roots send up singular growths. called
knees" hollow wooden pyramids.
sometimes several feet high, that
protrude most grotesQuely above the
dark swamp water. The trees them
selves are swell butted,"> as the
lumbermen say-that is, large at the
very bottom but tapering soon to a
columnar trunk that rises grandly,
smooth and clean. sometimes ines a hun. hun,
grow in scattered dignity. sweet and
sour gum, ash and maple crowding
about their bases, but reaching at
their best not half OF their height.
wherever the expresses grow the
Of these great trees are the columns
holding up the sky for roof.
The buttressed roots give them
good anchorage in the mud in which
they stand and their towering trunks
are from Ave to twelve feet in diam
eter. Their age, readily proved by
counting the rings in the stumps
where the lumbermen have been at
work, Is anywhere from 800 to 1,2O0
years, A few trees are older, and
there 10 one mighty mOSS-grOwn pa
triarch in the Salkehatchie swamp In
South Carolina which is estimated to
be 1900 years old.
Sentimentally speaking, IL seems a
pity that these great trees should go
It will take ten centuries to replace
them, yet in ten years or less the Big
Salkehatchie will be bare Of market
able cypress ~ will most Of the other
tidewater swamps Of America On
the other hand. they are SO isolated
that few people Of tho whole world
know Of their existence and fewer
still would be able to make pilgrim
ages into the swamp depths to see
them. It 10 a historic adventure to
reach them and get them out for the
l service OF mankind, and that service
i is great indeed. for they make the
finest lumber that exists.
Perhaps the biggest and oldest of
all the red cypress trees in the world
today are in this Big Salkehatchie
swamp. Not far from them, along
the smooth highway which leads to
Atlanta, Ga. and on to more south
ern winter resorts, thousands of mo-
tors purr, carrying pleasure seekers
south tor the winter. Few indeed Of
the passers realise the wonders Of
these big trees, which: are so near
at hand, as wonderful In their way as
the sequoias and giant redwoods OF
the Pacific coast, which are visited
and admired nv Thousands yearly,