CYPRESS TREE. 



113 



time (eleven hundred years), and then were found as 

 fresh and entire as if they had been new. But this pope 

 would needs change them for gates of brass, which were 

 cast by the famous Antonio Philarete ; not, in my opi- 

 nion, so venerable as those of Cypress. It was in coffins 

 of this material that (as Thucydides tells us) the Athe- 

 nians used to bury their heroes ; and the mummy-chests 

 brought with those condited bodies out of Egypt are 

 made of this material, which it is probable may have lain 

 in those dry and sandy cryptiE many thousand years.'' 



The bridge built by Semiramis over the Euphrates 

 was of Cypress-wood, and it is still used in Candia and 

 Malta for building. 



Evelyn remarks, that the very chips are frequently 

 used to flavour rich wines; that the cones or chips, 

 burned, will destroy or drive away moths, gnats, and 

 flies ; and that it yields a gum not much inferior to mas- 

 tick. He desires his readers not to " despair of the 

 resurrection of a Cypress subverted by the wind, for 

 some have redressed themselves, and one (as Tiphilinus 

 mentions) rose the very next day ; which happening 

 about the reign of the Emperor Vespasian, was esteemed 

 an happy omen.'' ' 



The mountain-cypress thus, that firmly stood 

 From age to age, the empress of the wood. 

 By some strong whirlwind's sudden blast declined. 

 Bends arching down, and nods before the wind : 

 The deep roots tremble till the gust blows o'er. 

 And then she rises stately as before." 



Harte's Statius, 



This author observes, that the durability of this 

 timber has been celebrated by Vitruvius and Martial, 

 and that it is considered no less beautiful than durable, 



