CONrrKK/F,. CUPllESSUS. 



2471 



When measured for us by direction of Signor Manetti, this tree was found to 

 be 121 ft. high, and 23 ft. in circumference at 1 ft. from the ground. Besides 

 its great age, the cypress of Soma is remarkable for having been wounded by 

 Francis I., wiio is said to have struck his sword into it, in his despair at losing 

 the battle of Pavia ; and for having been respected by Napoleon, who, when 

 laying down the plan for his great road over the Simplon, diverged from the 

 straight line to avoid injuring this tree. 



The cypress of Hafiz, near Shiraz, is mentioned by several writers. Taver- 

 nier, in 1 665, says that it required four men to embrace it. Chardin also 

 mentions it; as does Johnson, who visited it in 1817. This tree is said by 

 some to have been planted by the poet himself; and, by others, to have grown 

 over his grave. In Kaempfer's Amcenitates ExoticcB^Sic., however, there is given 

 a plate of the sepulchre of Hafiz (see^fig. 2326.), from a Persian drawing ; and, 

 in the description, it is stated that Hafiz, who died in 1340, was buried in a 

 square cemetery shaded by poplars, a rare tree in Persia; and that the wall 

 which surrounded it was built to coincide in direction with the boundary of 

 the cypress grove in the adjoining garden, which had belonged to the poet, 

 and was bequeathed by him for the preservation of his cemetery. In this 

 garden, probably, was the celebrated cypress alluded to by the travellers. 

 The small tombstones shown in Jig. 2326. are those of persons who wished 

 to be buried under the guardian influence of the poet. 



The cypresses of Chartreux were planted by Michael Angelo ; and they were 

 seen by M. Simond, who, in his Travels through Italy in 1817, visited the 

 garden of the convent of the Chartreux, situated on the site of the baths of 

 Dioclesian at Rome. There are three trees, all nearly the same size; and 

 the trunk of the largest, when measured by M. Simond, was about 13 ft. in 

 circumference. 



Los Cypressos de la Reyna Sultana are mentioned by Hunter in his edition 

 of Evelyn's Sylva, and by M. Loiseleur Deslongchamps, in his very able article 

 on the cypress in the Annales de la Societe cT Horticulture de Paris, vol. xv. These 

 noble trees formed an avenue in the gardens of the palace of the Generalife at 

 Granada; and under their shade the last Moorish king of Granada is said 

 to have surprised his wife with one of the Abencerages, which led to the 

 massacre of thirty-six princes of that race. These trees were still in exist- 

 ence in 1832, when (as according to the legend, they were large trees in 1490) 

 they must have been nearly 400 years old. 



The oldest and largest cypress in France is one near St. Remy, in Pro- 

 vence. When measured by MM. Audibert and Varrel, in October, 1832, it 

 was 55 ft. Gin. high, French (above 60 ft. English); the circumference of the 

 trunk was 14 ft. ( 15 ft. 2 in.), and of the head 75 ft. (82 ft. 3 in.). This tree 



