THE CYPRESS. 119 
sands of acres. In this rich alluvial soil, upon which 
a new layer of vegetable mould is every year depo- 
sited by the floods, the Cypress attains its utmost 
development; the largest being about 120 feet high, 
and 30 to 40 feet in circumference. 
The European Cypress is an evergreen: its foliage 
bears a close resemblance to our common Red Cedar. 
It grows in various parts of the country adjacent to 
the Mediterranean Sea. It is most abundant on the 
islands of Crete and Cyprus, from the latter of which 
it derives its name. It is also spoken of in Eeclesi- 
asticus as growing on Mount Sion. The Gopher 
Wood of which Noah built the ark is supposed to 
be identical with the Cypress. The great durability 
of the wood rendered it peculiarly serviceable to the 
ancients. Pliny, the Roman historian, says that the 
statue of Jupiter, in the Capitol at Rome, which 
was of Cypress, had existed above 600 years without 
exhibiting any signs of decay. Plato, a heathen 
philosopher, had his laws engraven on Cypress-wood 
as being more durable than brass. Leon Alberti, a 
celebrated Florentine architect of the fifteenth cen- 
tury, tells us that he found the wood of a vessel 
which had been submerged 1300 years, and which 
was perfectly sound, to be principally of Cypress. 
The Cypress doors of St. Peter’s Cathedral at Rome, 
which were removed by Eugene IV., after having 
stood the usage of over 1100 years, were entirely 
sound ; and it was the custom in the middle ages to 
bury the Popes in coffins of Cypress, under the belief 
that they would never decay. 
