78 VEGETABLE SUBSTANCES. 



of birds and beasts. At Bedfont, in Middlesex, there 

 are two celebrated trees, whose branches are annually 

 shaped into something like the form of a peacock, 

 with a date shewing when this piece of useless labour 

 was first performed. We think it is 1708. The 

 Romans, as we learn from Pliny's letters, cut their 

 evergreens into the fantastic shapes of birds and 

 beasts. Lord Bacon, with his wonted good sense, 

 protested against this practice, which was the fashion 

 of his time. " I, for my part," he says in his Essays, 

 " do not like images cut out in juniper and other 

 garden stuff; they be for children." 



Cypress Cuprums sempervircm^ 



Of the CYPRESS, of which there are twenty-two spe- 

 cies, it will be necessary to mention only two, the 

 Evergreen Cypress ( Cupressus semperrirens),and the 

 White Cedar (Cupressus thyoides). Of the first, 

 there are two varieties, the upright and the spread- 

 ing, the last growing to the larger size, and being 

 consequently the more valuable, as a timber tree. It 



