398 
PLTOT S IS^ATTJEAL HISTOET. 
[Book XVI. 
useless, a berry that causes a wry®^ face when tasted, and a leaf 
that is bitter : it also gives out a disagreeable pungent smell, ^® 
and its shade is far from agreeable. The wood that it furnishes 
is but scanty, so much so indeed, that it may be almost regarded 
as little more than a shrub. This tree is sacred to Pluto, 
and hence it is used as a sign of mourning placed at the 
entrance of a house : the female tree is for a long time barren. 
The pyramidal appearance that it presents has caused it not to 
be rejected, but for a long time it was only used for marking 
the intervals between rows of pines : at the present day, how- 
ever, it is clipped and trained to form hedge-rows, or else is 
thinned and lengthened out in the various designs®^ employed in 
ornamental gardening, and which represent scenes of hunting, 
fleets, and various other objects : these it covers with a thin 
small leaf, which is always green. 
There are two varieties of the cypress ; the one^~ tapering 
and pyramidal, and which is known as the female ; while the 
male tree®^ throws its branches straight out from the body, and 
is often pruned and employed as a rest for the vine. Both 
the male and the female are permitted to throw out their 
branches, which are cut and emplo5^ed for poles and props, 
being worth, after thirteen years' growth, a denarius a-piece. 
In respect of income, a plantation of cypress is remarkably 
profitable, so much so, indeed, that it was a saying in old times 
that a cypress-wood is a dowry for a daughter.^* The native 
country of this tree is the island of Crete, although Cato^^ 
calls it Tarentine, Tarentum being the first place, I suppose, 
in which it was naturalized : in the island of JEnaria,^^ also, 
^"^ Tristis tentantum sensu torquebit amaror. — Yirg. Georg. h. 247. 
This statement is exaggerated. 
89 It is still to be seen very frequently in the cemeteries of Greece and 
Constantinople. 
9^ The cypress is in reality monoecious, the structure of the same plant 
being both male and female. 
^1 This was formerly done with the cypress, in England, to a consider- 
able extent. Such absurdities are now but rare. 
92 ^}^Q Cupressus fastigiata of Decandolle ; and a variety of the 
Cupressus sempervirens- of Linnaeus, 
93 The Cupressus horizontalis of Miller; the variety B of the C. sem- 
pervirens of Linnseus. 
9* The present name given to this tree in the island of Crete, is the 
^' daughter's dowry." 
95 Be Ee Eust. c. 151. 96 b. iii. c. 12. 
