206 THE CLASSICAL PLANTS OF SICILY. 
pose the Stone Pine must originally have been introduced 
from Greece into Italy and Sicily, as I never observed it in 
a natural wood; a few with their broad-spreading tops are 
seen picturesquely placed about villas, and farm-houses. 
This is the species mentioned in Horace, Ode xxii. Carm. 
lib. 3. 
Imminens villæ tua Pinus esto. 
And by Virgil, Ecl. vii. v. 65. — Pulcherrima Pinus in hortis. 
The gentle murmuring of the wind among the branches 
of this Pine, has frequently been noticed by ancient poets. 
Theocritus begins the first Idyl, 
Adv v1 rò Pilvo xad & mirus, airiAs, rhe, 
‘A aor] raig mayli wsricdercu. 
And Moschus, Idyl. v. v. 8, says,—— 
"Evla, xol, 7» avelon words üveuoc, & sirus Qs. 
But the roaring of the wind through an extensive Pine forest 
is astonishing, and bears the nearest resemblance to the Weep 
and loud noise of a stormy sea. 
129, Cupressus sempervirens.— Common Cypress. 
In Sicilian Cipressu; Kurdgooog, Diosc. lib. i. cap. 103. 
Kurdgirros, Theoph. lib. i. cap. 5. This tree, being sacred to 
Pluto and Proserpine, was planted about tombs, Horace 
calls Cypresses, funebres, and invisas. They are still planted 
in burial grounds and cemeteries in the South of Europe, and 
in the East. Pliny well describes the tree—* natu morosa, 
fructü supervacua, baccis torva, folio amara, odore violenta, 
ac ne umbra quidem gratiosa, Diti sacra, et ideo funebri 
signo ad domos posita. Lib. xvi. cap. 93. i 
Thus Byron, in his own beautiful words,— 
Cypress! ’tis 
A gloomy tree, which looks as if it mourn’d 
O’er what it shadows, 
