The Cypress. 



which is of a very ornamental shape, and that leaf dies in 

 the autumn of a bright scarlet colour, and in that colour 

 hangs upon the tree until nearly Christmas, as I have had 

 it hang in my garden in Kensington. 



In Latin, Cuprcssus Disticha ; in French, Cypre. 



209. The botanical characters are : — It has male and female flowers, at 

 distances, on the same plant ; the male flowers are formed into oval katkins, 

 in which the flowers are placed thinly, among several roundish scales, each 

 having a single flower. These have no petals nor stamina, but have four 

 summits, which adhere to the bottom of the scales. The female flowers are 

 formed in a roundish cone, each containing eight or ten flowers; the scales 

 of the cones are opposite, each having a single flowei-, these have no petals : 

 the germen is scarcely visible, but under each scale there are many punc« 

 tures or spots, and a concave truncated apex, instead of a style ; this after- 

 wards becomes a globular cone, opening in an angular target-shaped scale, 

 vinder which are situated angular seeds. 



210. This is one of the largest trees in the world. M[- 

 CHAUX says that it frequently attains the height of one hun- 

 dred and twenty feet, and as frequently forty feet in cir- 

 cumference, at a considerable distance from the ground. 

 He says that Humboldt found several of these trees in 

 the ancient garden of the Emperor of Mexico, which were 

 planted there before the first arrival of the Spaniards in 

 that country. This tree delights, not in a swamp, but in 

 wet land on the borders of rivers, marshes, or swamps. Its 

 timber is better than that of the Pine, more close, finer 

 grained ; after being some time exposed to the air, it is of a 

 reddish colour, and it is of great strength and elasticity. 

 The tree, as an object of beauty, surpasses almost every 

 other. It drops its leaves in the fall, or, rather, in the win- 



