POETRY OF FLOWERS. 
77 
cestors selected so doleful a looking tree to sym¬ 
bolize their grief, or even that it is still used as 
a funereal sign. According to Ovid, this tree 
was named after Cvparissus, an especial favor¬ 
ite of Apollo. This feeling youth, having acci¬ 
dentally slain his darling stag, was so sorrow- 
stricken that he besought the gods to doom his 
life to everlasting gloom ; and they, in compli¬ 
ance with his request, transformed him into a 
cypress tree. 
“When, lost in tears, the blood his veins forsakes, 
His every limb a glassy 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.” 
In turning to modern poets, one finds no lack 
of references to the melancholy omen of this 
tree. Sir Walter Scott leads the sad procession 
with a doleful song : 
“ 0 lady, twine no wreath for me, 
Or twine it of the cypress tree.” 
Byron beautifully terms it that 
“Dark tree! still sad when others’ grief is fled, 
The only constant mourner o’er the dead.” 
