Cupr 



essus 1157 



half fell down some years ago. The other half, which leans a good deal, is about 

 50 ft. high, with a clean bole 8 ft. in girth. 



At Shedfield House, near Botley, Hants, the residence of Lady Phillimore, 

 Sir Hugh Beevor measured a tree 57 ft. by 6 ft. in 1906. Prof. Phillimore, who 

 has kindly sent a specimen branch and a photograph, says that this tree is believed 

 to be 120 to 200 years old, and to have been planted about the same time as a 

 plane standing near it, which measures 1 5 ft. in girth at the base. 



At Barton, Bury St. Edmunds, there is a tree of the horizontal variety which was 

 46 ft. by 3 ft. 8 in. in 1904. 



On the lawn at White Knights Park, Reading, Mr. A. B. Jackson measured in 

 1909 a tree 65 ft. high and 6 ft. 11 in. in girth. 



In Wales, at Penrhyn Castle, there is a group of very fine trees, supposed to 

 be only about fifty years planted, and of which the tallest tree in the centre in 1906 

 was 65 ft, high by only 2 ft. 10 in. in girth ; another was 55 ft. by 4^ ft. ; a third was 

 55 ft. by 3 ft. 2 in. 



In Scotland I have seen no old trees, and but few young ones. A tree at 

 Monreith raised by Sir H. Maxwell from seed gathered at Florence in 1878 was 

 about 25 ft. high in 1906. 



At Keir,^ Perthshire, there are about forty trees of this species trained against 

 the house, the largest of which is 29 ft. high and 21 in. in girth. A lithograph of 

 the house made in 1858 shows that they were then about 10 ft. high. 



In Ireland,^ a tree at Kilruddery, near Bray, was 38 ft. by 5 ft. 5 in. in 1904; 

 and another at Powerscourt was 36 ft. by 3 ft. 7 in. in 1909. 



Timber 



The timber^ is light brown in colour, hard, and close-grained, with very 

 numerous fine medullary rays, and annual rings usually distinctly marked by a 

 firm line. According to Mathieu,* the wood is easy to work, and gives off" a 

 penetrating agreeable odour. It is very durable, lasts indefinitely under water, and 

 longer than oak when used for vine-props. In France and Italy it is considered 

 excellent for furniture ; and the doors of St. Peter's at Rome, which lasted from 

 the time of Constantine to that of Pope Eugene IV., nearly 1000 years, were said to 

 be made of cypress.^ According to Madon * it yields in Cyprus wood of the first 

 quality for building. 



It has been frequently stated that the Egyptians used this wood for mummy 

 cases,^ but all the specimens in the Kew Museum have proved to be the wood of 

 Picus Sycomorus. 



The large chests which are supposed to have been used for importing silk from 



• The account of these trees ia/oum. Roy. Hort. Soc. xiv. 531 (1892), is not accurate. We are indebted to the owner, 

 Archibald Stirling, Esq., for the particulars given above. 



2 In Card. Chron. 1868, p. 1289, a tree in the Bridgetown garden, Castlemartyr, was reported to be 60 ft. high and 13 

 ft. in girth in 1868 ; but neither Henry nor I saw this tree on our visits to Castlemartyr. 



3 Gamble, Indian Timbers, 697 (1902). * Flore Forestiire, 523 (1897). 

 5 Loudon, Gard. Mag. xv. 271 (1839). Cf. also Card. Chron. 1843, p. 87. 



^ Cyprus Parly. Paper, No. 366 of 1881, End. No. 2. Madon considers it to have been the shittim wood of Scripture, 

 out of which the ark of the covenant was constructed ; but Canon Tristram, Fauna and Flora of Palestine, 293 (1884), 

 identifies shittim wood with Acacia seyal, Delile. ^ A«o Bull. 1909, pp. 74-6. 



