200 SYLVA FLORIFERA. 



We have two varieties of the common 

 cypress, se?npervirens, the upright and the 

 spreading, which the ancients distinguished 

 as male and female trees ; but the botanist will 

 know by the class in which these trees are 

 placed, that they are androgynous plants, viz. 

 having male and female flowers on the same 

 root. It appears that the ancients did not 

 consider the seed of a tree to be a fruit, unless 

 it was eatable; for Phocion, who was so cele- 

 brated in Athens for his private and public 

 virtues, remarked to a young man who spoke 

 with more vanity than good sense, " Young 

 man, thy discourse resembles the cypress; it is 

 large and lofty, and bears no fruit." What 

 would this Athenian, whose virtues were as 

 Incorruptible as the cypress itself, say to some 

 of our modern speeches and publications? 



When we plant the cypress in the shrubbery, 

 it should be correctly ascertained if it is the 

 spiral or the spreading variety; for the former 

 requires but a small space, and should be placed 

 behind those flowering shrubs whose extend- 

 ing branches require such an addition: whilst 

 the spreading cypress may wave its mournful 

 branches over the daisy-pied lawn, or form a 

 foreground to the pointed poplar. But it re- 

 quires considerable ingenuity to place the 

 cypress happily in our plantations; for in most 



