14 FOREST LIFE AND 



" Dark tree ! still sad when others' grief is fled — 

 The only constant mourner of the dead." — Byron. 



" Perhaps the oldest tree on record is the Cypress of Somma, 

 in Lombardy. It is supposed to have "been planted in the year 

 of the birth of Christ, and on that account is looked upon with 

 reverence by the inhabitants ; but an ancient chronicle at Milan 

 is said to prove that it was a tree in the time of Julius Csesar, 

 B.C. 42. It is one hundred and twenty-three feet high, and 

 twenty-three feet in circumference at one foot from the ground. 

 Napoleon, when laying down the plan for his great road over 

 the Simplon, diverged from a straight line to avoid injuring this 

 tree."^ 



" The Cedar was styled the glory of Lebanon. The Temple 

 of Solomon and that of Diana at Ephesus were built of this 

 wood. The number of these trees is now greatly diminished. 

 They were often of vast size, sometimes girting thirty-six feet, 

 perfectly sound, with a lofty height, whose spreading branches 

 extended one hundred and ten feet." The durability of the Ce- 

 dar is said to be attributable to two qualities : "1st, the bitter- 

 ness of the wood, which protects it from the depredations of 

 worms ; and, 2dly, its resin, which preserves it from the injuries 

 of the weather." 



To the Oak some assign the first rank. It is celebrated in the 

 East, and by many of the ancients was regarded with religious 

 veneration. In the West, and by moderns, it is employed more 

 as an emblem of the strength, compactness, and durability of the 

 state. 



" The religious veneration paid to this tree by the original na- 

 tives of Britain, in the time of the Druids, is well known to ev- 

 ery reader of British history." The patriarch Abraham resided 

 under an Oak, or a grove of Oaks ; and it is believed that he 

 planted a grove of this tree. " In fact, since, in hot countries, 

 * Mass. Reports. 



