218 LANGUAGE OF FLOWERS. 
a very long-lived tree, and attains to a great size. 
According to Pliny, there were Cypress trees 
growing in his time at Rome, which were more 
ancient than the city itself. Bartholdy makes 
mention of one at Misitra, which was thirty feet in 
circumference. The American species, one of the 
largest trees in the United States, is sometimes found 
of the same girth, and seventy feet high : its branches 
extend almost horizontally. 
The wood of the Cypress is remarkable for its 
durability. Many of the chests containing the 
Egyptian mummies are of this material, affording 
a decisive proof of its almost imperishable nature. 
We are further assured that the gates of St 
Paul's church at Rome, made of Cypress wood, 
which had lasted from the time of Constnntine, 
eleven hundred years, were as fresh as new when 
Pope Eugenius IV. ordered gates of brass to be 
erected in their stead. 
