THE TREE OF LEGEND AND ROMANCE 



79 



beneath their spreading branches remind one of nothing 

 more than the bones of some prehistoric monster. They 

 are unusually tough and hard, and appear to have been 

 bleached by centuries of weather. The under portions 

 of the live branches are a russet gold in color, and give 

 one the impression of having rusted through the action 

 of the sea's mists. Their twisted branches are silver- 

 gray and bare, and become a tangled mass at the top, the 

 under side of which is black and moss-covered, bringing 



Photograph by Mark Daniels. 



A GNARLED AND TWISTED PATRIARCH OF THE CYPRESS 

 GROVE 



Strangely enough many of the branches of the more wind-swept trees 

 grow straight out in the direction of the prevailing winds. They are 

 hare and as stiff as steel springs, thrusting their sharp points in the 

 teeth of the gale as if to hurl defiance at the elements. 



into vivid contrast the brilliant green of the upper surface 

 of the top. It would appear to be a simple matter to 

 count the rings on one of the fallen trees and thereby 

 determine the age, even though these rings are so close 

 and fine as to make the task an extremely difficult one. 

 This has been done in one instance, and the age of the 

 tree before it fell was ascertained to have been 221 years. 

 The disputed question is just how long the dead tree had 

 been down. Some contend that in a few centuries there 

 will he nothing left of the wood, while others vociferously 

 proclaim their firm belief that the tree was deader than 

 Ptolemy's mummy long before the latter lost its hair. 



To substantiate the contention that the dead-and-down 

 trees are very aged, it has been pointed out that cypress 



is the most lasting of all wood. The ancients engraved 

 their laws upon cypress, which, coupled with the possi- 

 bility of their having used the same material in the man- 

 ufacture of clubs, might explain why these laws and the 

 order in which they were drawn to enforce remained 

 intact for so long a time. A statue of Jupiter was carved 

 in cypress and stood without decay for GOO years, which 

 is considerably longer, and is still in a better condition 

 of preservation than the memory of him whose image 

 it is. So there is considerable foundation for the conten- 

 tion that the great age of these dead trees cannot be 

 disproved through the theory that they would have 

 decayed and disintegrated in the length of time they are 



Photograph by Mark Daniels. 



NEAREST APPROACH TO SLENDER GRACE THAT THESE 

 HARDY TREES ATTAIN 



Most of the trees are gnarled and twisted and bent into grotesque 

 shapes. The coastal winds and the spray of the sea bend their tough 

 branches and stain their twigs and foliage with russet gold and purple 

 hues. 



supposed to have been down. At a recent visit to this 

 country Lord Balfour, of England, who has given con- 

 siderable study to cedars and cypress trees, expressed his 

 conviction that one of the dead trees was of the family 

 of the cedar of Lebanon, from which source immediately 

 sprung the belief in some fertile western minds that 

 these trees are the sires of the cedars of Lebanon to be 

 found in the Holy Land. Whether such is the case or not, 

 it should be, in my opinion, a matter of pride to any 



