100 ESSA YS. 



Mr. "Webb. Supposing them to have been only forty or fifty 

 years old at the occurrence of the event to which they owe 

 their celebrity, — surely a reasonable supposition, as they 

 were then large trees, according to the legend, — they have 

 now reached the age of about four hundred years. They are 

 probably much older than this. 



But these and all other Cypresses known in Europe are 

 striplings in comparison with the tree at Somma, in Lom- 

 bardy, which Loudon has figured in his Arboretum (p. 2470), 

 from an original drawing furnished by Signor Manetti of 

 Monza. The tree is greatly reverenced by the inhabitants 

 of that part of Lombardy, who have a tradition that it was 

 planted in the year of our Saviour's birth. Even Napoleon 

 is said to have treated it with some deference, and to have 

 deviated from a direct line to avoid injuring it, when laying 

 down the plan for the great road over the Simplon. Its 

 trunk was twenty feet in girth, according to the Abbe* Be- 

 lize's measurement, in 1832, or twenty-three feet at the height 

 of a foot from the ground, as Signor Manetti states. Since 

 the Cypress only attains the circumference of fourteen or fif- 

 teen feet in four hundred years or more, and after that must 

 increase with extreme slowness, we may, perhaps, place some 

 credit in the popular tradition respecting the age of this tree, 

 or in the testimony of the Abbe Beleze, who informed Mr. 

 Loudon that his brother assured him, that there is an ancient 

 chronicle extant at Milan, which proves this tree to have 

 been in existence in the time of Julius Caesar ! 



To the same class, also, belongs the goodly Cedar of Leba- 

 non QCedrus Libani), from which the sacred writers have 

 derived so many forcible and noble images. It is generally 

 employed as an emblem of perennial vigor and longevity. 

 The most plausible derivation of the name is from the Arabic 

 " kedroum " or " kedre," signifying " power " ; and the most 

 characteristic description of the tree, with its widespread hori- 

 zontal branches and close-woven leafy canopy, is that given 

 by the prophet Ezekiel, where it is assumed as a type of the 

 grandeur and strength of the Assyrian empire. 



" Behold, the Assyrian was a Cedar in Lebanon, with fair 



