CYPRESS-TREE. 237 
some of the old palaces in Venice, there are beams of 
larch yet existing that are as sound as when they were 
first placed. But the very combustible nature of this 
wood renders it objectionable for such uses. No wood 
with which we are acquainted affords more durable 
staves for casks than larch ; and, in the opinion of many 
persons, it is further valuable by improving the flavour 
of the wine contained in them. The wood is of delicate 
colour, not unlike the cedar used for black-lead pencils, 
but is knotty almost throughout. 
From the inner bark of the larch the Russians manu- 
facture a soft and fine kind of white gloves. The trunk, 
if tapped betwixt the months of March and September, 
yields an extremely pure turpentine, which has the 
name of Venice turpentine ; and is of considerable use 
in medicine. It is usually thinner than any other kind 
of turpentine, and of clear, whitish, or yellowish colour. 
The drug of this name, which is generally met with in 
the shops, is now imported from New England, but was 
formerly brought from Venice. A brown gummy sub- 
stance, known in Russia by the name ofOrtnburgn gum, 
is obtained by a curious process from the sap of the 
tree. On the large branches of the larch are produced 
small, sweetish grains, somewhat resembling sugar ; 
which are frequently substituted for the drug called 
manna (252). 
The cultivation of the larch was first introduced into 
Britain towards the conclusion of the seventeenth cen- 
tury. The trees will grow in almost any soil; and the 
proper season for felling them is the month of July. 
They, however, seldom attain any large size in this 
country ; and they are said to decay and become co- 
vered with moss, when about forty years old. 
250. The CYPRESS-TREE (Ciipressus sempervireus) is a 
dark-coloured evergreen, a native of the Levant , the leaves of which 
fire extremely small, and entirely cover all the slender branches, 
lying close upon them so as to give them a somewhat quadrangular 
shape. 
In some of the trees the branches diminish gradually in length 
