408 



CUP 



THE UNIVERSAL HERBAL.; 



CUP 





sandy earth, which must be levelled very smooth. The seeds 

 should be sown rather thick, sifting the same light earth over 

 them, half an inch deep. If the weather should prove very 

 warm and dry, it will be proper to shade the bed from the 

 sun in the day, and water it carefully, observing not to wash 

 the seeds out of the ground. If the seed sown be good, the 

 young plants will appear in about two months' time. They 

 must be kept clean from weeds, and often refreshed with wa- 

 ter in dry weather. If the seeds be sown upon a moderate 

 hot-bed, covered with mats, they will come up much sooner, 

 and with greater certainty, than when they are sown in the 

 cold ground. When the young plants have remained two 

 years in this bed, they will be strong enough to bear trans- 

 planting into the nursery ; but as they are very tender while 

 young, they should be covered with mats in severe frosts. 

 The best season for removing them is the beginning of April, 

 when the drying easterly winds of March are over, selecting 

 if possible a cloudy day, when the weather inclines to rain. 

 In taking them out of the seed-bed, preserve the roots as en- 

 tire as possible, and, if you can, a ball of earth to each plant. 

 The soil for the two first sorts should be a warm sand or 

 gravel, which should be levelled, after it has been dug and 

 cleansed from all noxious weeds. Then draw the lines where 

 the trees are to be planted, at three feet asunder, planting 

 them at eighteen inches' distance in the rows, observing to 

 close the earth well to their roots, as well as to lay a little 

 mulch upon the surface of ground about, their stems, and 

 water them well, so as to settle the earth to their roots, 

 which should be repeated twice a week until the plants have 

 taken fresh root. They may remain in the nursery three or 

 four years, according to the progress they make, or till the 

 ground where they are to be planted is ready. If, however, 

 you desire to let them remain longer, you should take up 

 every other tree in the row, to transplant them out, for 

 otherwise their roots will be matted together, so as to make it 

 difficult to transplant them, as well as to endanger their future 

 growth. They ought on no account to be left too long in the 

 nursery before they are transplanted out to remain, because 

 they do not mat together so closely as many other sorts of 

 evergreen-trees, whereby they may be taken up with a good 

 ball of earth to their roots , but the roots of the Cypress being 

 npt to extend out in length, it is one of the most difficult 

 trees to remove when grown large ; therefore most curious 

 persons prefer putting the young plants into small pots, when 

 they first take them up out of the seed-bed, and so train them 

 up in pots two or three years, until they are fit to plant out 

 where they are to stand for good, and by this management 

 they are secure of all the plants. When they are planted out to 

 remain, if they be intended for timber, they should be placed 

 twelve or fourteen feet every way apart. Those in the full 

 ground should be carefully removed, observing not to shake 

 the earth from their roots ; to prevent which, you should 

 open the ground about each tree, cutting off all long roots, 

 then working under the ball of earth, cut the downright roots 

 off, and after paring off all the earth from the upper part of 

 the ball, to reduce the bulk of it, ( so that its weight may not be 

 too great for its fibres to support,) they may be carried upon 

 a hand-barrow by two persons, to the place where they are 

 to be planted, which if very distant, will make it necessary to 

 put them into baskets, or have their roots closely matted up. 

 When they are planted, you must settle the earth close to 

 their roots as before, laying a little mulch upon the surface 

 of the ground about their stems, to prevent the sun and wind 

 from entering the earth and drying their fibres. They must 

 also be well watered, to settle the ground to their roots, 

 which must also be repeated, if the weather prove dry, until 



they have taken root ; after which time they will require 



little more care than to keep them clean from weeds. 



The species are, 



1. Cupressus Sempervirens ; Evergreen Cyprest. Leaves 

 imbricate ; fronds quadrangular. Stem upright, with many 

 round branches, either growing upright or spreading abroad, 

 strigose and toothed with the rudiments of leaves ; fronds 

 dichotomous, subquadrangular; leaflets alternately opposite, 

 decurrent, subcarinate ; fruits globular, or somewhat ovate, 

 on the sides or at the .ends of the brandies when unripe 

 dark green ; seed linear, oblong, subcolumnar, bay-coloured. 

 Mr. Miller specifically distinguishes the upright from tin 1 

 spreading Cypress, (Cupressus Horizontals :) the former, he 

 says, is very common in most of the old gardens in England, 

 but are not at present so much in request as formerly ; 

 though it is not destitute of advantages, for it serves to add 

 to the beauty of wildernesses, or clumps of evergreens, 

 and has considerable effect where properly disposed. It 

 was formerly planted in the borders of pleasure-gardens, and 

 kept shorn to a pyramidal or conic form, while others, who 

 thought that cutting would destroy them, tied them up with 

 cords, in order to form the same figure in which they 

 are naturally disposed to grow ; but this windingthem about 

 prevented the air from entering the inward parts of the 

 branches, so that the leaves decayed, and became unsightly, 

 and the growth of the whole plant was greatly retarded : 

 even those which are sheared, if the operation be not per- 

 formed in the spring or early in the summer, are very sub- 

 ject to be injured by sharp winds and cutting frosts in winter. 

 Upon the whole, therefore, it is much better to suffer them 

 to assume their natural form, planting them among other 

 evergreen trees, where, by the darkness of their green leaves, 

 together with their wavingheads, they will greatly add to the 

 variety. The spreading Cypress is by far the largest-growing 

 tree, and is the most common timber in some parts of the 

 Levant : this, if planted upon a warm, sandy, gravelly soil, will 

 prosper exceedingly ; and though the plants of this sort art' 

 not so finely shaped as the first, yet they greatly compensate- 

 that defect by their vigorous growth and strength, in resisting 

 all weathers. This tree is very well adapted for intermixing 

 with evergreens of a second size, next to Pines and Firs, 

 form clumps, in which class it will keep pace with trees of 

 the same line, and be very handsome. The wood of this 

 tree is very valuable, when grown to a size fit for planks, 

 which it will reach as soon as Oaks ; why, therefore, should 

 not this tree be cultivated fur that purpose, since there are 

 many places in England where the boil is of a sandy or : 

 velly nature, and seldom produces any thing worth cultivat- 

 ing ? Now in such places these trees w ill thrive wonder- 

 fully, and greatly add to the pleasure of the owner while 

 growing, and produce afterwards as much profit to his .suc- 

 cessors probably as the finest plantation of Oaks ; especially 

 if the timber prove as good in England as in the islanii 

 the Archipelago, where we find it was so gainful a commodity 

 to the island of Candia, that the plantations were culled dot 

 filicc, the felling of one of them being reckoned a daughter's 

 portion. The timber of this tree is said to resist the \\onn. 

 moth, and all putrefaction, fU)d to last many hundred ye 

 The doors of St. Peter's church at Rome were made ot' this 

 material, which lasted from the time of the Emperor Constan- 

 tine to that of Pope Eugcnius II. and were then sounu 

 entire, when the Pope exchanged them tor piles of 1, 

 Thucydides informs us, that the coffins in which the Adieu 

 used to bury their heroes, and the mummy-chest - 

 with those condited bodies out of Egypt, were made oi 

 wood ; which is of a dusky brown red colour, has a sweet 



