CYPRESS TREE. 



117 



He places it in the garden of Proserpine : 



" There mournful cypress grew in greatest store. 

 And trees of bitter gall, and heben sad." 



Fairie Queene, book ii. 



The Earl of Suffolk, in calling down curses on his 

 enemies, would have — 



" Their sweetest shade a grove of cypress-trees." 



King Henry the Sixth, Part II. 



It is designated by Tasso as 



" The funeral cypress." 



Sir Walter Scott's song is well known : 



O lady, twine no wreath for me. 

 Or twine it of the cypress-tree." 



Melancholy and death seem to be associated with the 

 Cypress-tree in all countries ; Thunberg says — 



" The churches of all the different religious sects are in general 

 built upon the most eligible spots, both in the villages and in the 

 towns; the roads leading to them likewise are frequently adorned 

 with alleys of cypress-trees*." 



Dallaway, in his " Constantinople," observes, that the 

 entrance into Smyrna is through spacious cemeteries and 

 luxuriant cypress-groves. 



But here the Roman custom seems to be reversed ; foi' 

 the author remarks that 



" the humbler graves are marked by cypresses at the 



head and feet, from which custom extensive groves have grown, 

 and are seen in every stage of vegetation." 



The tombs of persons of distinction are marked by 

 ornamented stones, and flowers of the choicest kinds. 



Thunberg's Travels iii Japan. 



