214 BURMA, ITS PEOPLE A. YD PRODUCTIOyS. 



is indigenous, and from specimens of the foliage and fruit ■which he brought away, 

 it appears to be a new species that must be characterized thus." After brieiiy 

 describing it, Dr. Mason goes on to add : " The wood appears to contain more resinous 

 matter than any other species of conifer I ever saw, and large quantities of both pitch 

 and tar might be manufactured in the forests, if a remunerative price could be obtained 

 for the article. A pine gi'ows very abimdantly beyond the water-shed East of 

 Toung-ngoo, and a few in the South are seen on the West side. This Dr. Biandis 

 regards as another new species, of which he has a description in preparation." This 

 last species is doubtless the P. Khasijana of Dr. Brandis' list of 1862, where only the 

 above 2 species are entered.' 



Of the pine De Guberaatis thus writes : " Arbro funeraire et phalHque 



Xous avons deja dit plusieurs fois que les arbres funuraires sent symboliques de 

 rimmortalite, de la generation et do la vie eternelle. Le pin,^ eomme le cypres et lo 

 sapin, a cause de la solidite de leur hois et de leur feuillage toujours vert, figurait 

 la perputuite de la vie ; ce symbole semblait done convenii- aux ceremonies fimeraires 

 chez les peuples qui croyaient a I'iramortalite de I'ame." 



Horace, for example, in his Ode to Posthumus, alludes to the funereal use of the 

 Cypress : 



" Linquenda tellus et domus et placens 

 Uxor ; neque harum quas colis arborum 

 Te, prater invisas cupressus 



Ulla brevem dominum sequetur."— Lib. ii. Ode xiv. 



The reason sometimes assigned for the selection of the Cypress as a funereal 

 tree is that, when once cut down, it never, as some trees, sends up a new shoot from 

 its stump ; but De Gubematis philosophically observes, "Mais le Cypres est surtout 

 honore a cause de sa signification funeraire, en sa qualite d'arbre immoitel, toujours 

 verdoyant ( Ciipres-sus sempervirem), parf uiue, dont le bois, commo celui du cedre, est 

 incorruptible. L'arbre de la mort, symbolisait en meme temps I'immortalite." — 

 I.e. p. 118. 



According to De Gubematis, " Dans les contes orientaux, le cypres represente 

 souvent le jeune araoureux, et la rose la bien-aimC-e." This remark gives additional 

 interest and meaning to those exquisite lines of Byron on Zuleika's tomb — 



" Within the place of thousand tombs 

 That .shine beneath, while dark above 

 The sad but living cyjjress glooms 

 And withers not, though branch and leaf 

 Are stamped with an eternal grief, 

 Like early unrequited love, 

 One spot exists, which ever blooms, 

 Even in that deadly grove — 

 A single rose is shedding there 

 Its lonely lustre, meek and pale :. 

 It looks as planted by despair- 

 So white — so faint — the slightest gale 

 Might whirl the leaves on high : 

 And yet, though storms and blight assail, 

 And hands more rude than wintry sky 

 May wring it from the stem — in vain — 

 To-morrow sees it bloom again ! 

 The stalk some spirit gently rears, 

 And waters with celestial tears ; 



' For further remarks of a very interesting nature on the significance of pine-cones, hut whicli 

 c.innot be nproiiuced here, reference m.ny be made to Inraau's " Ancient Faiths emhodied in Ancient 

 Names," veil. ii. p. 490. 



- Mythologie des Plantes, ii. p. 2S9. 



