Representative Uses of Wood. Flumes, shingles, interior finish. Weight of Seasoned Wood in Pounds per Cubic Foot. 25. Modulus of Elasticity. 1,200,000. Modulus of Rupture. 960,000. Remarks. Subject to attack by fungus, causing the large oval pits in the heartwood. Disease ceases upon the felling of trees. (von Schrenk Contribution No. 14 Shaw School Botany, St. Louis.) [p177] [Illustration: PLATE 34. CYPRESS (_Cupressus_, _Taxodium_). Monterey Cypress (_Cupressus macrocarpa_). (_Courtesy Doubleday, Page & Co._) Cypress (_Taxodium distichum_). (_Photograph by Edward J. Davison_.) "Peggy" Cypress Wood.] CYPRESS. (_Cupressus and Taxodium_.) The name cypress has been chiefly applied to trees of the genera Chamæcyparis, Cupressus, and Taxodium. Most species of the genus Chamæcyparis are now called cedars (see page 167). The Cupressus, while true cypresses and important in Europe, have no significance in America. The single species of the genus Taxodium is not a cypress, but supplies the "cypress" wood of American commerce. It is perhaps best to confine the name cypress to the true cypress (_Cupressus_) and to the commercial cypress (_Taxodium_). The true cypress (_Cupressus_) was once important in the East, and is thought by some to have given the gopher wood of which the Ark was built.[98] Pliny mentions cypress doors good after four hundred years, and a statue good after six hundred years. Herodotus and other ancient authors[99] speak of it. Authorities in the middle ages thought that it would never decay. The cypress gates of the early St. Peter's, removed after one thousand years of service, were found to be in perfect condition.[100] Cypress was much prized for mummy-cases. Living trees long figured as funeral emblems, and are yet planted over graves in Italy and Turkey.[101] The common or evergreen cypress is the chief European species. The eight or nine American representatives are of little note save as they are sometimes used for hedges and ornamentation. The Monterey and Gowan cypresses (_Cupressus macrocarpa_ and _Cupressus goveniana_) are thus employed. There are small evergreen scale-like leaves. [p178] [Illustration: BALD CYPRESS (_Taxodium distichum_).]