-2470 



AUBOWF.TUM .AND I RUTiCETUiM. 



PART III. 



liemarlcable Cypresses. Perhaps the oldest tree of which there is any record 

 in the world is the cypress of Soma, or Somnia, in Lombardy. This celebrated 

 tree, of whichjffg. 2325. is a portrait (from an original draw ing kindly sent to us 

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

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

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

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

 proves that it was a tree in the time of Julius Caesar, b. r. 42. (See p. 1G9.) 



