Baldcypress grows in swamps which are flooded for prolonged periods, and on wet stream banks and bottomlands. It occurs in East Texas west to the Nueces River. The straight trunk has numerous ascending branches, and narrow conical outline. In old age the tree generally has a broad fluted, or buttressed base, a smooth slowly tapering trunk and a broad, open, flat top of a few heavy branches and numerous small branchlets. Virgin-growth timber attains heights up to 130 feet and diameters up to 10 feet. [Illustration: BALDCYPRESS (Cone and leaves, seven-eighths natural size)] The BARK is silvery to cinnamon-red, finely divided by numerous longitudinal fissures. The light green LEAVES about ½ to ¾ inch long, are arranged in feather-like fashion along two sides of small branchlets which fall in the autumn with the leaves still attached. The “FRUIT”, a rounded cone, is about one inch in diameter, with thick irregular scales. The WOOD is light, soft, easily worked, with a light sap wood and dark-brown heartwood. It is particularly durable in contact with the soil. Cypress is in demand for exterior trim of buildings, greenhouse planking, boat and ship building, shingles, posts, poles, and crossties. ASHE JUNIPER (Mexican Juniper--Mountain Cedar) Juniperus ashei Buchholz In Central and West Texas are found no less than nine species of cedars or junipers, including one eastern, one southern, and seven western species. Of these, the most abundant and important is the Mexican juniper. This tree often forms extensive low forests or dense breaks on the limestone hills and slopes of the Edwards Plateau and Grand Prairie. [Illustration: ASHE JUNIPER (Berry-like fruit and leaves, two-thirds natural size)] The trunk is covered with shreddy, brown or reddish-brown BARK. The LEAVES are dark blue-green, small, opposite or arranged in 3’s, scale like, blunt pointed, and fringed with minute teeth. On vigorous young plants the leaves are sharp pointed and longer, up to ½ inch long. The “FRUIT”, a nearly round, dark blue, berry-like cone is covered with glaucous bloom; has a thin, pleasant-scented, sweet flesh, enclosing 1 or 2 seeds; and ripens in one season. The WOOD is light, hard, light brown, close-grained but weak. It is extensively used for fence posts and fuel. The tree is sometimes planted as an ornamental. EASTERN REDCEDAR Juniperus virginiana L. Redcedar is scattered through East Texas, usually on gravelly ridges and rocky hillsides of the uplands. There are two kinds of LEAVES, usually both on the same tree. The most common is dark green, minute, and scale-like, clasping the twig in four ranks, so that the twig appears square. The other kind, usually appearing on young growth, or vigorous shoots, is awl-shaped, quite sharp-pointed, spreading, and whitened.