THE CYPRESS 59 



the interest arising from this great age and size, the 

 tree has the distinction of having been wounded by- 

 Francis I, who is said to have stuck his sword into 

 it in despair after his defeat at Pavia ; and of having 

 been so respected by Napoleon that in planning his 

 road over the Simplon he deflected it from the 

 straight line to avoid injuring the tree. 



The branches of the Cypress divide repeatedly, and 

 approximately in a single plane, so as to form flat 

 frond-like sprays, the smaller twigs of which are 

 quadrangular in section and are closely covered 

 with small overlapping leaves in four rows. These 

 are of a yellowish shade of green, with a smooth 

 and shining curved surface, and remain on the tree 

 for five or six years, spreading outwards and becom- 

 ing more sharply pointed as they get older. On the 

 main stem the leaves are longer and needle-like. 



As in most members of that main division of the 

 Coniferce that is known as the Pinacece, the male 

 and female flowers of the Cypress are produced on 

 the same tree. The staminate flowers are very 

 numerous, and are only about a quarter of an inch 

 long. Each of them consists of an elongated cone or 

 axis, bearing the male " sporophylls " or staminate 

 leaves, minute scales of a yellowish colour, each bear- 

 ing three pollen-sacs. The female flowers are fewer 

 in number, each being a globose, or rather polyhedral, 

 cone made up of about a dozen polygonal scales in 

 decussate pairs, with a conical projection in the centre 

 of each and a number of erect ovules at the base of its 

 inner surface. When mature, this cone or " galbulus " 

 is from an inch to an inch and a half in diameter, and 



