September 25, 1889.] 



Garden and Forest. 



459 



rather dry than moist, somewhat sheltered, and at no great 

 elevation above the sea."* 



The Bible tells us that the Cypress grew in the Holy Land, 

 and associates it with the Cedar in dignity — " I am exalted like 

 the Cedar of Lebanon and like a Cypress on Mount Sion." The 

 Egyptians knew it well, the Assyrians also, and the Greeks and 

 Romans. It is now found in an apparently wild state in Italy; 

 but Pliny assures us that it was not native to his country but 

 had been introduced from Greece and first planted near Ta- 

 rentUm. 



The Cypress, like the Lotus, was an emblem of immortality 

 in all ancient times. But the interpretation put upon this 

 common significance of the two plants seems to have varied 

 as widely as their aspect. As a symbol of life after death, the 

 Lotus was held sacred to Osiris, the god of generation, but as 

 a symbol of the same thing the Cypress was consecrated to 

 the dead and held sacred to Pluto and Proserpine. Ideas of 

 joy and hope were associated with the Lotus, ideas of sorrow 

 and bereavement with the Cypress. The reason of the differ- 

 ence is not hard to find. The Lotus is beautiful, graceful and 

 gay in aspect, the Cypress is solemn and dignified and never 

 seems more appropriately placed than when, like the Yew of 

 England, it stands in a place of tombs. It was chosen as an 

 emblem of immortality because it was an evergreen, and also 

 because it would immediately rise again to an upright position 

 if bent down by the wind or by manual force. Its association 

 with ideas of death was explained by the fact that, if cut down, 

 it throws up no suckers from the root. But such significations 

 were always explained among the ancients by some poetic 

 legend, and with reference to tlie mournful meanings of the 

 Cypress, Ovid tells us that a youth named Cyparissus, a favor- 

 ite of Apollo, having shot, by accident, a pet stag, grieved so 

 deeply that he prayed he might visibly mourn forever. He 

 was thereupon transformed into a Cypress-tree, and Apollo, 



" Sadly sighing, cried: 

 ' Be then forever what thy wish implied. 

 Be moaned by me, in others grief excite. 

 And still preside at every funeral rite.' " 

 All Oriental nations still plant Cypresses in their burial- 

 grounds, and the Turks place one at either end of a grave. 

 They are so numerous, writes Loudon, "at Scutari that the 

 cemetery there resembles one vast forest of Cypress. This 

 magnificent burying-ground extends for miles in length ; and 

 among high and turbaned tombstones, gold-lettered inscrip- 

 tions, and graves ornamented with flowers, the tall evergreen 

 Cypress has a very striking effect." As we remember this 

 cemetery, however, it is anything but magnificent in effect. 

 It is, indeed, of vast extent, and some of the tombs, when ex- 

 amined, are very beautifully carved. But they are crowded 

 so close together that it seems as though one body must often 

 encroach upon the resting-place of the next ; hundreds of the 

 tall stones are out of the perpendicular, giving a painful look 

 of neglect and decay, and the Cypresses, too, are pressed so 

 close together that the dignity of their forms is less conspic- 

 uous than tlie deep and mournful gloom caused by the density 

 of their shade. The Cypress is not a tree to plant thus in 

 groves. It looks its best when seen in isolated examples or 

 when arranged in avenues, like the one portrayed in our pic- 

 ture. But its dark and spiry outlines, rising everywhere from 

 the court-yards of the houses, give great individuality and 

 beauty to the general aspect of oriental towns. Constanti- 

 nople, as seen from the harbor, covering its hills with its 

 masses of white walls and its domes and minarets, would be 

 far less beautiful were the general whiteness not relieved by 

 innumerable lofty Cypress-trees, now standing singly and novv 

 forming little clumps or long lines, high above the house- 

 roofs. 



In mediaeval Persia the Cypress was especially honored. Its 

 pyramidal outline was thought to resemble a flame, and it was, 

 therefore, planted near the temples of the fire-worshippers. A 

 legend, which Firdusi versified, tells that the first Cypress 

 came direct to Zoroaster from Paradise, and was planted by 

 him in front of the temple at Kischmer, in Khorasan. When 

 it was cut down by the Mohammedan caliph, Motewekkil, it 

 was believed to be 1,450 years old. In India the Cypress is 

 one of the most conspicuous of cultivated trees, standing, as 

 usual, near tombs, or forming avenues similar to the one at 

 Verona. In China, too, we read * that ancient grave-yards are 

 laid out in squares and contain " tablets innumerable. Cypress- 

 trees, gates, walls and bridges." The tomb of Confucius lies 

 north of the city of Kio-fou-hien,""at a distance of about a 

 mile ; a fine avenue of old Cypress trees leads direct from the 



north gate to the burial-ground ; " the grave itself lies in a 

 "forest of Oak, Cypress and other kinds of trees, enclosed 

 by a high wall ; " and everywhere in the neighborhood is " the 

 unfailing Cypress." The grounds of the chief temple in the 

 city itself are likewise filled with Cypresses, and one of them 

 is said to have been planted by Confucius himself. " Its 

 gnarled and aged trunk bears evidence of its great age ; " but 

 if it was, indeed, planted by the sage, it must be no less than 

 2,540 years old 1 



One of the most remarkable Cypresses in the world stands — 

 or still stood not long ago — at Soma, or Somma, in Lombardy. 

 According to some accounts it was planted in the year when 

 Christ was born, but others declare that it was a tree in the 

 fime of Julius C^sar. It is 121 feet in height, and twenty-three 

 feet in circumference at one foot above the ground. Francis 

 I., of France, drove his sword into this tree in his rage at hav- 

 ing been defeated at the battle of Pavia ; and Napoleon re- 

 spected it sufficiently to defiect the line of one of his great 

 highroads rather than do it harm. Near Shiraz, in Persia, 

 stands a Cypress which is said to have been planted by the 

 poet Hafiz or to have sprung up on his grave. At Chartreux 

 are some famous Cypresses which were planted by Michael 

 Angelo. The trunk of the largest, when measured in 1817, 

 girtfied about thirteen feet. Many writers have celebrated 

 Los Cypresses de la Reyiia Sultana, which form an avenue in 

 the palace-gardens of the Generalife at Granada, and are con- 

 nected with the history of the massacre of the Abencerages 

 by the last Moorish king of that province. They are supposed 

 to have been large trees at that time — 1490 — and were still 

 flourishing in 1832. It would be interesting to know what is 

 now their condition. 



Modern folk-lore tells us that the Cypress brings ill-luck, 

 especially when it comes to us in dreams. The wood of the 

 Cypress is very durable, and in many different ages has been 

 used for coffins. Thucydides says that Greeks who died for 

 their country had their ashes preserved in Cypress-chests. 

 Pliny refers to a statue of Jupiter in the Capitol, at Rome, 

 wliich was made of Cypress-wood, had existed for 600 years, 

 and was still in perfect condition. He adds that the doors of 

 the temple of Delphi, likewise of this wood, had the appear- 

 ance of being quite new when they had hung for 400 years. 

 In his own time the wood was much used for rustic purposes, 

 and, as plantations of Cypress could be cut every thirteen 

 years for poles, vine-props, etc., they were esteemed so valu- 

 able that they were given as marriage portions, and hence the 

 tree itself was sometimes called dos filiae. Plato had his code 

 of laws engraved on Cypress-wood, and, in the fifteenth cen- 

 tury, A.D., Leon Alberti found the wood of an ancient ship 

 which had been submerged for 1,300 years, as he declared, to 

 be chiefly of Cypress and still perfectly sound. The doors of 

 old St. Peter's, in Rome, were of Cypress, and in admirable 

 condition after they had lasted 1,100 years. Mediaeval popes 

 were often buried in Cypress coffins. 



The balsamic odor of Cypress-wood and of the growing 

 tree is constantly referred to by ancient writers, and it is said 

 that oriental physicians used to send consumptive patients to 

 the Island of Crete, where the Cypress grew in great abun- 

 dance, on account of the heajing qualities of the air, as in 

 modern times they are sent where Pine forests abound. 



* Loudon : 



* Loomis : 



'Arboretum." 



'Confucius and the Chinese Classics." 



Notes Upon Some North American Trees. — XI. 



Carya. — The first author to separate the Hickories from the 

 Wahiuts and to place them in a genus by themselves was 

 Rafinesque. His first attempt was made in 1808, in the 

 Medical Repository (v., 352), in which in a single paragraph 

 he simply enumerated after the word Scoria the specific 

 names, in parenthesis, cf five Hickories. It has been sug- 

 gested (Britton in Bull. Torrey Bot. Club, xv., 275) that 

 Scoria was simply a misprint for Hicoria. This may well 

 have been, but it is not important, as no characters having 

 been indicated by Rafinesque at this time for his proposed 

 new genus, or any reasons assigned for separating the 

 Hickories and Walnuts, Scoria or Hicoria of the date 1808 

 cannot be considered. Rafinesque, however, in the "Flora 

 Ludoviciana," published in 18 17, clearly defined, on page 

 109, -the characters which separate the Hickories from the 

 Walnuts, under his account of Hicorius amara, and it is evi- 

 dent that he was the first to propose in print a separate 

 genus for these trees, the Carya of Nuttall not having been 

 published until a year later (1818) ; and it is just and correct 

 therefore to discard the now familiar Carya of Nuttall and 



