674 TRANSACTIONS OF THE AMERICAN INSTITUTE. 



Of other coniferous trees, the Pine is frequently mentioned in the classics 

 By the Egyptians it was considered an emblem of the soul. Homer tells 

 us that the residence of the Cyclops was "brown with o'erarching pine." 

 Ovid speaks of Polyphemus carrying a lofty pine as a walking staff. Ceres 

 carried a flaming pine, torn from Etna, in each hand when seeking her 

 daughter Proserpine in the infernal regions. A grove of sacred Pines is 

 spoken of as being among the trees moved b}' the music of Orpheus. The 

 ships of Enoas wore made of pine trees sacred to Cybele; these ships were 

 afterwards changed to nymphs, and Virgil, alluding to the mournful sounds 

 of the wind among the pine branches, calls them the singing pines. 



" The pines of Menelaus were heard to mourn, 

 And sounds of wo along the groves were borne." 



There are two legends as to the origin of the pine tree. One states that 

 when Atys, the favorite of Cybele, was about to destroy himself, she 

 changed him into a pine tree. The other runs thus: Pitys, a nymph, was 

 beloved by Pan and also by Boreas, but she not reciprocating the passion 

 of the latter, he in a fit of jealousy killed her by dashing her against a rock. 

 Pan, commiserating her sad fate, and in loving remembrance of her, caused 

 the pine tree to spring from her remains. 



Permit me to suggest that the mysterious sighings and moanings of the 

 pine tree in the winter wind may be the moanings and sighings of the 

 poor Pitys, when thus so roughly embraced by rude Boreas. If not a sci- 

 entific, it is at least a poetical way of explaining a hitherto unexplained 

 phenomenon. 



The upright cypress is supposed by many to be the Gopher wood of which 

 the ark was made. Allusion is made to its peculiar growth in the Book of 

 Ecclesiasticus: " I am exalted like the cedar of Lebanon and like a cypress 

 on Mount Zion." 



The Egyptians made their mummy cases of this tree, and the Greeks who 

 died for their country had their ashes preserved in cypress wood cases. 

 The tree, esteemed as an emblem of immortality, was dedicated to the 

 dead and held sacred to Pluto and Proserpine, because when cut down it 

 never throws up any suckers or gives any signs of remaining life. 



From its durability it was like the cedar of Lebanon, used to make the 

 statues of the gods. Pliny speaks of the statue of Jupiter in the capitol 

 as made of this wood, and as being in his day perfectly soimd, although 

 six hundred years old. The doors of the temple of Diana at Ephesus were 

 made of cypres^ wood, and appeared as though quite new when four hun- 

 dred years old. 



The inhabitants of the island of Crete boasted of the magnificent speci- 

 mens of cypress planted on the tomb of Jupiter. But of all localities there 

 is none so deserving of notice as the neighborhood of ancient Rome. South- 

 ward of the capitol on the Latium plain, forty miles in diameter, may be 

 Been the Palatine Hill, covered with the ruined palaces of distinguished 

 ancients, the remains of the baths of Tifriis, the vaults of the Temple of 

 Peace, the sepulchral pyramid of Caius Cassius, the tower of Cecilia Me- 

 tella. the Calian Mount, the temple of Minerva, the baths of Caracalla, the 

 Appian way — all waited upon by this gloomy tree, truly appropriate to 

 such scenes of desolaVon and fallen greatness. 



