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Cypress. 
(MOURNING.) 
“ The cypress is the emblem of mourning.” 
Shakspeare. 
I N every country and from the earliest ages the Cypress has 
been ever deemed the emblem of mourning; and the 
reason is not difficult to imagine. Where the gloomy foliage 
oi this doleful-looking tree meets the view, that sympathetic 
bond which unites man with nature excites melancholy feel¬ 
ings, and makes the beholder intuitively aware that the sombre 
shadows trailing round these impenetrable branches are really 
associated with the saddening thoughts he entertains. 
No one can be surprised that our earliest ancestors selected 
so doleful a looking tree to symbolize their grief, or even that 
it is still used as a funereal sign. Ancient writers, ever ready 
to seize upon and convert to their own purposes the peculi¬ 
arities of nature, were not long in fashioning a pretty fable 
to account for the dismal hue of the cypress. According to 
Ovid, this tree was named after Cyparissus, an especial favourite 
of Apollo. This feeling youth, having accidentally slain his 
darling stag, was so sorrow-stricken that he besought the gods 
to doom his life to everlasting gloom ; and they, in compliance 
with his request, transformed him into a cypress-tree. 
“When, lost in tears, the blood his veins forsakes, 
His every limb a grassy hue partakes; 
His flowing tresses, stiff and bushy grown, 
Point to the stars, and taper to a cone. 
Apollo thus: ‘Ah! youth, beloved in vain, 
Long shall thy boughs the gloom I feel retain: 
Henceforth, when mourners grieve, their grief to share. 
Emblem of woe the cypress shall be there.” 
