THE CYPRESS 61 



Turks of planting the tree at either end of their 

 graves., arose from the belief that the aroma of its 

 resin would neutralise the effluvia of the cemetery. 

 So wholesome was this aroma considered, that 

 Oriental physicians were in the habit of sending 

 patients with weak lungs to the isle of Crete. 



Pliny narrates several remarkable, but yet not 

 incredible, instances of the durability of Cypress 

 wood. He says that there were in his time Cypresses 

 still standing at Rome which were more ancient than 

 the city itself ; but that the tree was not a native of 

 Italy, having been originally introduced from Greece 

 to the Greek colony of Tarentum. The doors of the 

 temple of Diana, at Ephesus, were, Pliny relates, 

 of Cypress wood, and appeared quite new when four 

 centuries old ; as did also the statue of Jupiter in the 

 Capitol, which was of the same material and half as 

 old again. The tree in his time was employed for 

 rafters, joists, and especially for vine-props, so that a 

 Cypress grove was thought a valuable dowry for a 

 daughter. The Cypress was also one of the trees 

 tortured into various shapes with the shears in that 

 " topiary " work which was as fashionable in the 

 Roman villa of the first century as in the English, 

 French, or Dutch garden of the seventeenth. The 

 wood of the Cypress may have been one of several 

 kinds of timber marked with ornamental knots and 

 wavy figures in the grain which, under the name of 

 Citron wood, were most highly prized by the Romans 

 for the manufacture of tables known as " mensse 

 tigrinee et pantherinffi." From mediaeval times the 

 coffins of the Popes have been made of Cypress wood, 



