194 SYLVA FLORIFERA. 



the Christian era, was entirely formed of this 

 timber; and some learned writers, who do 

 not hesitate to go 389 years farther back, en- 

 deavour to prove, that the gopher mentioned 

 in Scripture as the wood of which the ark 

 was built, was no other than cypress, and 

 which is not confuted by other learned 

 authors; such as Isa, Vossius, and David 

 Kinchi, who will have gopher to signify only 

 resinous timber. Epiphanius, a bishop of 

 Salamis, who died A.D. 403, tells us, (Hseres, 

 lib. i.) some relics of the ark, circa campos 

 Sennaar, lasted even to his days ; and which 

 was judged to have been of cypress. It is 

 known, that at Crete this timber was em- 

 ployed in building the largest ships ; and 

 Virgil tells us, " that cypress provides for 

 keels of ships that scour the watery plains." 

 Aristobulus affirms, that the Assyrians made 

 shipping of this timber ; and so plentiful was 

 this tree about those parts of Assyria, where 

 the ark is conjectured to have been built, 

 that those vast armadas which Alexander the 

 Great caused to be equipped and sent out 

 from Babylon, consisted only of cypress. 

 (Arrianus, Alex. lib. vii., and Strabo, lib. xvi.) 

 The ancients, who had great faith in bal- 

 samic scents, supposed therefore that the 

 cypress tree improved the air by its transpir- 



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