Dr. Suess' 'Lorax' Cypress Tree Fell Over

OVER THE YEARS, TREES HAVE had a special place in children's literature. Shel Silverstein's The Giving Tree is a story of growth, dedication, sacrifice, and loss. In The Story of Ferdinand by Munro Leaf, a Spanish bull escapes a bullfight and finds refuge under his favorite cork tree. And in The Lorax by Theodore Geisel (that's Dr. Seuss to you and me), the titular creature is an early advocate for environmental preservation (the book was first published in 1971). As it turns out, the Truffula trees the Lorax so valiantly defends may have been based on a real life Monterey cypress (Cupressus macrocarpa) in La Jolla, California's Ellen Browning Scripps Park. The literary icon fatally fell over on Thursday, June 13.