I. 6. THE WHITE CEDAR. 101 
trouble, and at less expense, than any other forest tree, and it 
conflicts with no other. There are large tracts of cold, swampy 
land, which could be drained only at great expense, which might, 
in their present state, be made to produce valuable forests of 
this tree. It would be only necessary to gather the seed from 
the forests already growing, and cast it abundantly, in the fall 
of the year, upon the surface of the ground or water, in the 
morasses and swamps intended for this use. In six or eighteen 
months, the seeds will vegetate. Ina few years, thinnings might 
be made, which, for enclosures alone, would pay a high rate of 
interest upon the value of the land, and of the labor bestowed. 
There are several trees of the cypress kind that should be 
introduced for their beauty. The common cypress of Europe, 
a tall and graceful, plume-shaped tree, the common and suitable 
ornament for burying places in the Levant, succeeds in the open 
air in various parts of Britain, and would probably succeed in 
sheltered places here. Perhaps the oldest tree on record, is the 
cypress of Somma, in Lombardy. It is supposed to have been 
planted the year of the birth of Jesus Christ, and, on that ac- 
count, 1s looked upon with reverence by the inhabitants: but an 
ancient chronicle at Milan is said to prove thatit was a tree in 
the time of Julius Cesar, B. C., 42. It is one hundred and 
twenty-one feet high, and twenty-three feet in circumference at 
one foot from the ground. Napoleon, when laying down the 
plan for his great road over the Simplon, diverged from a 
straight line to avoid injuring this tree.* 
A. still more beautiful tree, not an evergreen, is the cypress of 
the Southern States, (Tazxddium distichum). This is a noble 
tree. It often rises to the height of one hundred and twenty 
feet. In Bartram’s garden, a tree of this species is the chief 
ornament of the place, among the best collection of trees in 
North America. At the Botanic Garden, Cambridge, it grows 
perfectly well, and has never been visibly affected by the sever- 
ity of our winter. 
* Loudon, IV, 2471, 
