CONIFERvE. 



57 



specimens of it are now extant. Asia Minor is its present native 

 habitat. It attains heights of from fifty to eighty feet, and forms a 

 massive, sombre, and monarchical-looking tree. 



As a timber tree it should never be planted ; as an ornamental one 

 it should have a place in every collection. Like its congeners it is to 

 be found in several forms or varieties ; but the only ones deserving 

 notice are : Glauca, (the glaucous-leaved,) Nana, (the dwarf,) Pendula^ 

 (the drooping-branched,) and Variegata, (the variegated-leaved.) 



S.D. 111 CUPRESSINK-^E : The Cypress Tribe. 



The Hebraic n ?T Tirzah, Greek KvirapLaaoQ ; hence Latin Cupressus, 



Arhor Diti sacra, et ideo funehri signo ad domos posita ; — fron- 

 dem ejtcs funeream ; — lignum ejus ; inasmuch as some of the Cypress 

 trees were much used by the ancients for planting their burial grounds ; 

 and many of the species were much esteemed by them on account of 

 their rich resinous juices, or the fragrant oils and perfumes they ob- 

 tained from them. 



The name of this Cypress family being clearly enough derived from 

 the Greek Kvirapiaarog, (cyparissus ;) Latin cupressus ; hence we have 

 the Greek word KvireXKov. a small cup, and the Latin cupa, a cup ; 

 because frequently made of this wood. Most certainly the word is not 

 derived from the isle of Cyprus, or Ceos ; nor from Cyparissus, the 

 beautiful youth who was transformed into a cypress ; as traditional 

 mythology (Ovid's Metamorphoses, x, 21) would have us believe. 



Ee that as it may, however, this is the most numerous in sections, 

 and the only S.D. of our great family Pinacese which I have 

 been, though somewhat reluctantly, forced, as it were, to divide 

 into Sub-Sections : for although we have here a cognate family more 

 or less closely related, yet, in their distinguishing characteristics, 

 flowers, leaves, cones, and seeds : also in their ligneous tissues, 

 and resinous juices, they are as dissimilar as they are numerous ; 

 inasmuch as in some of the Sections and Sub- Sections are to be 

 found species producing comparatively hard, strong, tough, durable, 

 indestructible, incombustible, fragrant and resinous woods ; while 

 in others the wood is soft, brittle, spongy, not durable, combustible, 

 scentless, and non-resinous : few if any of them, however, can be 

 classed as profitable timber trees for the climate and soils of Great 

 Britain and Ireland; their proper designation being ornamental trees 

 and shrubs. 



