I. 6. THE WHITE CEDAR. 101 



trouble, and at less expense, than any other forest tree, and it 

 conflicts with no other. There are large tracts of cold, swampy- 

 land, which could be drained only at great expense, which might, 

 in their present state, be made to produce valuable forests of 

 this tree. It would be only necessary to gather the seed from 

 the forests already growing, and cast it abundantly, in the fall 

 of the year, upon the surface of the ground or water, in the 

 morasses and swamps intended for this use. In six or eighteen 

 months, the seeds will vegetate. In a few years, thinnings might 

 be made, which, for enclosures alone, would pay a high rate of 

 interest upon the value of the land, and of the labor bestowed. 



There are several trees of the cypress kind that should be 

 introduced for their beauty. The common cypress of Europe, 

 a tall and graceful, plume- shaped tree, the common and suitable 

 ornament for burying places in the Levant, succeeds in the open 

 air in various parts of Britain, and would probably succeed in 

 sheltered places here. Perhaps the oldest tree on record, is the 

 cypress of Somma, in Lombardy. It is supposed to have been 

 planted the year of the birth of Jesus Christ, and, on that ac- 

 count, is looked upon with reverence by the inhabitants ; but an 

 ancient chronicle at Milan is said to prove that it was a tree in 

 the time of Julius Cesar, B. C, 42. It is one hundred and 

 twenty-one feet high, and twenty-three feet in circumference at 

 one foot from the ground. Napoleon, when laying down the 

 plan for his great road over the Simplon, diverged from a 

 straight line to avoid injuring this tree.* 



A still more beautiful tree, not an evergreen, is the cypress of 

 the Southern States, {Taxbd'wm distichuni). This is a noble 

 tree. It often rises to the height of one hundred and twenty 

 feet. In Bartram's garden, a tree of this species is the chief 

 ornament of the place, among the best collection of trees in 

 North America. At the Botanic Garden, Cambridge, it grows 

 perfectly well, and has never been visibly affected by the sever- 

 ity of our winter. 



* Loudon, IV, 2471. 



