THE DECIDUOUS CYPRESS IX ENGLAND 213 



feet — with the giants at Chapultepec and its Royal 

 Gardens. We have no trees of this species that were 

 alive and large in the golden age of Queen Elizabeth, 

 when trees, which are still alive, were flourishing in 

 Mexico in the reign of Montezuma. Our earliest 

 trees hardly made appearance among us until nearly 

 a century later, and the date of planting the champion 

 trees at Syon, and Hounslow, and other places, seems 

 to be yet another century on. 



We have no great dismal swamps dedicated to its 

 growth, to foster its semi-aquatic nature. But if the 

 tree is neither so old, large, or weird, in England, it 

 must not be imagined that it is a dull dot, or has been, 

 on our landscape scenes. If I were asked, if any 

 one were asked, as a tree lover who had a nominal 

 acquaintance with titles of trees, and a nodding ac- 

 quaintance with the effects they produced by their 

 colour, shape, and so forth, as to what tree it might 

 be desirable to plant for the betterment of scenic 

 effect, or what tree more than another had been 

 deplorably neglected by the cultivator, and what tree 

 in answer to such an inquiry has been upon the lips 

 that reply in more exceeding times of number than 

 any other, nearly all I think would unhesitatingly 

 answer, the Deciduous Cypress. And let it not be 

 forgotten that he — 



WTio toils to leave as his bequest 

 An added beauty to the earth, 



is worthy of grateful reminiscence. 



How many thousands of unoccupied sites upon the 

 banks of the ever-concomitant lake, lakelet, pool, or 

 streamlet of our England homes, great and small, 

 are there, I wonder, that would not be improved 

 beyond recognition by the planting of these stream- 

 loving, peerless ornaments, with their radiant green 



