Cupressus ^ 1 5 5 



Sprenger ^ says that this tree grows larger in Tuscany than in the south of Italy, 

 and that he had seen trees on the Lago Maggiore known to be 620 years old, which 

 were over 10 metres in girth near the ground, but I found no such trees myself. 



The cypresses in the court of the Diocletian Museum at Rome are said to have 

 been planted by Michael Angelo ; and when measured by M. Simond in 181 7 the 

 largest was about 13 ft. in girth. Mr. Victor Ames tells me that these are the most 

 picturesque of the fastigiate type that he has seen in Italy. The largest he knows of 

 the horizontalis type near Florence are at Marignolle, the tallest at Pozzo Imperiale. 

 Outside the Porta Romana there are some good specimens, which on account of 

 their pendulous growth look like ancient spruce trees. There is a good cypress at 

 Villa d'Este in Tivoli.^ A tall very slender cypress at La Mortola measured 33 

 metres by i^ metres in 1910. 



In the garden of Mr. R. Whittaker near Palermo, I saw a tree in 1910 which 

 measured about 85 ft. by 5 ft., 50 years after planting. Its lateral branches were hori- 

 zontal, and more regular than usual. On the Isola Bella in Lake Maggiore, I measured 

 a very handsome fastigiate tree planted in 1859, which in 1910 was 65 ft. high. 



There are very large cypresses at Scutari, where, as generally in Turkey,^ it is 

 planted abundantly in cemeteries, but I can obtain no exact measurements of the size 

 it attains here. 



The largest cypress recorded in Greece was one near Mistra, six miles west of 

 the ruins of Sparta, which Lord Aberdeen * found to be 36 ft. in girth at 4 ft. from 

 the ground in 1803. When he saw it again in 1839 it had scarcely gained in girth, 

 and was estimated to be about 150 ft. in height. This immense tree was destroyed^ 

 by fire lit by gipsies in 1881. Another large cypress at Patras, which Long® 

 measured in 1820 as 22 ft. 2 in. in girth at 4 ft. from the ground, was destroyed' 

 in the wars of the Greek Revolution. This tree was 18 French ft. in girth in 1676, 

 according to Spon. Prof. Samios of Athens informs us in a letter that the largest 

 specimen he knows of in Greece at the present time is at Oetylos, and measures 50 

 metres high by 2 metres in girth. 



Cultivation 



It is uncertain when the cypress was first introduced into England. The first 

 mention that we know of it is by Turner, who was physician at Syon in 1548, and 

 says* that it was growing plenteously there. Gerard," in 1597, says that there are 

 trees of it at " Syon, a place neare London, sometime a house of nunnes. It groweth 

 also at Greenwich, and at other places, and likewise at Hampstead, in the garden 

 of Mr. Wade." 



1 Mitt. deut. dendr. Ges. 1904, p. 195. 



2 In Gard. Chron. xiii. 752, fig. 130 (1880), an illustration is given of the cypress trees in the Buena Vista Garden at 

 Verona. Cf. also Karsten and Schenck, Vegetationsbilder, iii. tt. 23, 24 (1906), for illustrations of this tree at Gardone on 



Lake Garda. 



3 In. Gard. Chron. iii. 48, fig. 11 (1875), the cypresses growing in the garden of the Seraglio at Constantinople are figured. 

 < In Loudon, Gard. Mag. xv. 697 (1839), with a figure of the tree, reproduced from a drawing of it made on the spot 



by Lord Aberdeen. 



6 Willkomm, Forstliche Flora, 246 (1887), who gives its height as 170 ft. and its girth as 36 ft. 

 6 In Loudon, Gard. Mag. xiv. 530 (1838). ' Lord Aberdeen, loc. cit. 



8 Naints ofHerbes, 32 (1548). ^ Herball, 1185 (1597). 



