192 SYLVA FLOR1FERA. 



branch to branch with some hazard of my 

 neck. I thought it therefore the best way to 

 come down again." 



Cato wrote more on the cultivation of the 

 cypress than on that of any other tree ; and 

 he calls it a Tarentine tree ; but Pliny says, 

 that was from its being first planted in .that 

 neighbourhood, and that the isle of Candia is 

 its natural country; where, he says, when 

 the ground is ploughed up, the young plants 

 are sure to appear, and that in many parts of 

 that island, the cypress trees spring up with- 

 out culture; particularly on Mount Ida, on 

 which they grow to the very point, although 

 it is continually covered with snow. Hanway 

 says, some of the mountains near Reshd, in 

 Persia, are covered with cypress trees. Thus, 

 like the cedar, its birth-place is a cold bleak 

 mountain ; and, like that majestic tree, it 

 lives almost to eternity, and its timber seems 

 nearly imperishable. Sir W. Ouseley tells 

 us, in his travels, that " the beautiful and 

 venerable cypress of Fassa has been the boast 

 and ornament of that city for above a thou- 

 sand years." Pliny speaks of a cypress that 

 was planted when the foundation of Rome 

 was laid, and which fell, he says, through 

 careless neglect, on the last year of Nero's 

 reign. The same author tells us, the famous 

 statue of Vejovis, Jupiter, in the capitol, was 



