THE CYPRESS 63 



boy's grief at the accident that Apollo could not con- 

 sole him. He flung himself on the ground in despair 

 as the conclusion of the story has been translated, 



" Praying in expiation of his crime 

 Thenceforth to mourn to all succeeding time. 

 And now, of blood exhausted, he appears 

 Drain 'd by a torrent of continual tears. 

 The fleshy colour in his body fades, 

 A greenish tincture all his limbs invades. 

 From his fair head, where curling ringlets hung, 

 A tapering bush, with spiry branches, sprung, 

 Which, stiffening by degrees, its stem extends, 

 Till to the starry skies the spire ascends. 

 Apollo saw, and sadly sighing, cried, 

 ' Be, then, for ever what thy prayer implied : 

 Bemoan'd by me, in others grief excite, 

 And still preside at every funeral rite.' " 



The last line refers to a Cypress-tree being placed 

 at the door of a Roman house where a dead body 

 was lying. 



Though every cemetery in the East is thickly 

 planted with Cypresses, the tree is, in fact, a very 

 pleasant and ornamental evergreen, with a somewhat 

 formal but unusual outline that renders it suitable for 

 planting singly or in rows, especially where space is 

 limited. It cannot withstand the severe winters of 

 Northern France or Germany; but with us it ripens' 

 its seed freely, and, as has been seen, grows almost as 

 rapidly, if not to so large a size, as in its native land. 

 It cannot, however, endure the smoke of towns so well 

 as the Lombardy Poplar or as the Arbor- Vi toe. It is 

 not particular as to soil, but flourishes best in one 

 which is deep and sandy, and therefore somewhat dry 

 and warm, and in sheltered situations, not, in our 



