226 A MANUAL Of THM CCWIFEBA 



Being natives of a warmer climate than that of Great Britain, 

 the Cypresses, with the exception of three or four of the North 

 American species, are much liable to injury, and are not unfrequently 

 killed by severe frosts ; but in the south and west of England 

 and Ireland they grow freely, and form handsome specimens in a 

 short time. Cupressus Lawsoniana and 0. mctkaensis coming from 

 a higher latitude than the other species, are found to withstand 

 our severest winters without injury, and they are- consequently 

 among the most useful, as they are among the most beautiful of 

 ornamental Conifers. All the Cypresses under cultivation are found 

 to sport more or less into varieties, some of which are very distinct 

 from the usual type, especially in the case of the hardier species just 

 named, a circumstance which greatly enhances their value as decorative 

 plants. 



In the south of Europe and China the Cypress has been associated 

 with sepulchral monuments from remote antiquity. The Greeks and 

 Eomans regarded its evergreen character as an emblem of immortality, 

 and in China the weeping habit of the Funereal Cypress has always 

 been looked upon as the symbol of grief, and for that reason it is 

 planted over the graves of departed friends. 



Cupressus, which is the Latin form of KvirapiaaoQ (kuparissos), is 

 the ancient name of Oupressus semjpervirens, the Cypress of Scripture, 

 Mythology, and the Classical Poets. 



The modern dismemberment of the genus Cupressus, by which three 

 of the species, together with Eetinosporas, are brought under Chameecy- 

 paris,* does not find favour among British Horticulturists. The sole 

 character on which the so-called genus Chameecyparis is founded, consists 

 in the scales of the fertile catkins having but two ovules instead of 

 several, as in most Cypresses. Sir J. D. Hooker has shown conclusively 

 that in Cupressus Lawsoniana this distinction has completely broken 

 down, and that the reference of this species and G. nutkaensis to 

 Chamaecyparis is "utterly futile."! As Siebold's Eetinospora • rests 

 on no better foundation, consistency would require that we should 

 refer the species of Eetinospora to Cupressus ; but the generic name 

 under which they were introduced has become so firmly established in 

 garden nomenclature, that a change of name in these popular Conifers 

 would at present meet with but little, if any, acceptance. By 

 Mr. Bentham and Sir J. D. Hooker in their recently published 

 Genera Plantarum (Pars, i., vol. iii.), Chamsecyparis is made a Section 

 of Thuia (Thuya). 



* Chamsecyparis from X a M a ' (chamai), "on the ground," and. KvwapuraoQ (kuparissos), 

 the Cypress— one of Spach's numerous creations. 



t Botanical Magazine, 1866, Tab. 5587. 



