ii470 



.AnBOIiF.lUxM AND FR UTICKI I'M. 



PART III. 



liemarJcablc Cijpresses. Perhaps tiic oldest tree of whicli there is any rceorcl 

 in the world is the cypress of Soma, or Sorama, in Lonibardy. This celebrated 

 tree, of whichT?^'. 2.'J25. is a portrait (from an original drawing kindly sent to ns 

 by Signor Manetti of Monza), is generally supi)osed to have been planted the 

 year of the birth of Jesus Christ, and on this accoiuU is treated with great re- 

 verence by the inhabitants of that part of Loinhardy where it grows; but the 

 AbbeBeleze informs us that there is an ancient chronicle extant at Milan,which 

 proves tliat it was a tree in the time of Julius Caesar, u. c. 4'2. (See p. 1G9.) 



