TREES, INDIGENOUS AND EXOTIC. 85 



and the Island itself is called after the Cypress trees 

 which abounded there. We have thus from the same 

 root " Cypress/' the tree ; " Cyprus," the Island, 

 called after the tree ; " Gopher," the Semitic name for 

 the same tree ; " Coffer," the box or Ark made from 

 its wood ; " Copper," the metal found in the island ; 

 and lastly the " Cyprian " goddess, " diva potens 

 Cypri." 



The Gopher on which I have thus speculated is 

 one of the unsolved mysteries of antiquity. I have 

 stated in another chapter that one-half of the Bible 

 plants are unknown to us ; it would be more accurate 

 to say that we are completely ignorant of two-thirds. 

 About one hundred plants are mentioned in the Old 

 and New Testaments. We know the order, genus, 

 and species of about twenty : the order and genus 

 of about ten : the order alone of one or two. So 

 that of all the trees, shrubs, and herbs alluded to, we 

 are able to identify about one in three. 



The Cypress is one of those plants termed " cos- 

 mogonic " : it is a Tree of Life, and at the same time 

 a Tree of Death. This is why the drowning world 

 was saved in a coffer made of the imperishable 

 Gopher wood. I believe the Ark or chest which bore 

 Danae and her babe across the sea from Argos to the 

 Cyclades was of this same sacred wood. But, on the 

 other hand, the " funereal Cypress " is dedicated to 

 Pluto, and planted by the tombs of the departed. 

 The discovery was made in very early times that life 

 and death are complementary, that the greatest 

 blessing may be the greatest bane, and vice versa. 



The superstitious dread of the Cypress still 

 lingers among the peasantry near Nice. I wished to 



