CYPRESS 



1GS2 



CYPRUS 



rates and the more influential Stoics (see 

 STOICISM). 



Authorities differ as to the derivation of the 

 name Cynic, some referring it to Cynosarges, 

 the name of the building in Athens in which 

 the Cynics first met, and some to the Greek 

 word for dog, alluding to the rude manners 

 of the members of the school. In modern 

 usage the word cynic implies a sneering ten- 

 dency to deny that goodness exists in human 

 nature. 



CYPRESS, sz pres, a genus of somber, slow- 

 growing, cone-bearing trees, most of which are 

 evergreen and valued both for ornament and 

 for lumber. They are natives of Western North 

 America, Europe and Asia, growing chiefly 



CYPRESS 

 Branch, leaves and cones. 



in moist, warm climates, although also culti- 

 vated to some extent in dry places. The leaves 

 are small, dark, sharp-pointed", placed in a 

 comblike arrangement on the twigs. The 

 flowers are tiny and yellowish. The cones are 

 ball-like, with a few woody scales. 



The best-known cypress is the common cy- 

 press of Southern Europe, which has been in- 

 troduced into America and England. It is a 

 dark, thickly-leafed, somewhat quadrangular 

 tree which takes the form of a pyramid at the 

 top. It reaches a great age, and its red or 

 yellowish wood of pleasant odor is very dur- 

 able, withstanding weather and insect pests. 

 Its present use is chiefly for musical instru- 

 ments and cabinet work. Such trees have 

 long been used in cemeteries, and branches of 

 cypress were formerly worn as emblems of 

 mourning at funerals. The Monterey cypresses, 

 gnarled, flat-topped, of grotesque shapes, are 

 fine examples of this variety of trees. 



The bald cypress, which sheds its leaves and 

 is therefore deciduous, is one of the most val- 

 uable of timber trees (see DECIDUOUS TREES). 

 It reaches a height of 150 feet in the swamps 

 of the Southern United States. Where it grows 



to best advantage great forests cover many 

 square miles. Its wood is soft, easily worked 

 and durable, and is commonly used for shingles, 

 ties, posts and interior finish. A peculiar fea- 

 ture of this tree is the development of knots, or 

 knees, upon the roots at its spreading base. 

 Such growths sometimes reach a height of ten 

 feet. Small cypress knees are often hollowed 

 and made into bowls and buckets. 



The annual lumber cut of cypress in the 

 United States amounts to nearly 1,000,000,000 

 board feet, valued at more than $20,000,000 ; 

 Louisiana furnishes about two-thirds of the 

 supply, and Florida is second, with ten per 

 cent. Other states which cut over 25,000,000 

 feet annually are Georgia, Arkansas, North 

 Carolina and South Carolina. M.S. 



CYPRUS, si'prus, after Sicily and Sardinia 

 the largest island in the Mediterranean Sea. 

 It occupies 3,584 square miles in the northeast 

 corner, forty miles from the coast of Asia 

 Minor, and is nearly three times the size of 

 Rhode Island. Mountain ranges border its 

 north and south coasts, rising at one point to 

 a height of nearly 6,500 feet, and between them 

 lies a plain now bare and little cultivated but 

 once covered with forests which supplied tim- 

 ber for the Greek, Persian and Egyptian fleets. 



Agriculture is the occupation of most of the 

 people. Typical Mediterranean products are 

 raised, all in the most primitive fashion, but 

 the government is educating the natives in 

 modern methods, is building irrigation works 

 and re-planting the forests. Strabo, Pliny and 

 other ancient geographers tell of great min- 



LOCATION MAP 



eral wealth, and our word copper once meant 

 metal from Cyprus, for which the Greek name 

 was Kupros. To-day no metals are produced, 

 but the island is one of the world's few sources 

 of asbestos, gypsum and umber. 



Like all lands of the Eastern Mediterranean, 

 Cyprus has a story with many chapters. Egypt 

 conquered its Greek and Phoenician colonists 



