28 



A DISCOURSE 



II. days of Galen, it grew no nearer than Egypt, of all the Roman provinces, 

 but was not seen in the city till about thirty years before Pliny's time ; 

 whereas there is now hardly a more common and universal tree in 

 Europe, Thus likewise the Avellana travelled from Pontus in A sia, into 

 Greece ; and from thence into Italy, to the city of Abellino in Campania. 

 I mio-ht affirm the same of our Damasco Plum, Quince, Medlar, Fig, and 

 most ordinary Pears, as well as of several other peregrine trees, fruit- 

 bearers, and others ; for even the very Damask Rose itself, (as my Lord 

 Bacon tells us, cent. ii. exp. 659,) is little more than an hundred years 

 old in England : methinks this should be of wonderful incitement. It 

 was six hundred and eighty years after the foundation of Rome, before 

 Italy had tasted a cherry of their own, which being then brought thither 



the open air, they should have a dry, warm soil, and a well-sheltered place, and even then 

 we cannot insure their safety. 



The Cypress is a native of Crete j and Theophrastus informs us that it grows sponta- 

 neously upon Mount Ida. Virgil properly calls it the Idaean Cypress : 



nec Idseis Cyparissis. geoeg. ii. 



Branches of Cypress used anciently to be placed before the doors of the deceased, and 

 Servius gives the reason, "quia hujus generis arbor excisa non renascitur." It not only 

 was stationed before the doors, but also at the sepulchres and funeral piles : 



Linquenda tellus, et domus, et placens 

 Uxor, neque harum, quas colis, arborum 

 Te, prseter invisas Cupressos, 



Ulla brevem dominum sequetur. hoe. 



Lucan informs us that the Cypress was only used at the funerals of persons of distinction ; 

 and probably because it was Dili Sacra. He says, 



Et non plebeios luctus testata Cupressus. hb. iii. 



Virgil introduces the Cypress at the funeral of Polydore : 

 . ■ stant manibus arse, 



Caeruleis maestae vittis atraque Cupresso. iii. 



It is also mentioned at the funeral pile of Misenus : 



Ingentem struxere pyram : cui frondibus atris 

 Intexunt latera, et ferales ante Cupressos 



Constituunt, decorantque super fulgentibus armis. .«Ni vi. 



