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LANGUAGE OF FLOWERS. 
CYPRESS. 
MOURNING. 
The Cypress is the emblem of mourning. 
Shakspeare. 
According to Ovid, the Cypress derived its 
name from Cyparissos, an especial friend of 
Apollo’s, who, in grief at having inadvertently 
killed a favourite stag of his, prayed the gods 
that his mourning might be made perpetual, 
and was changed into a Cypress tree, the 
branches of which were thenceforward used at 
funerals. 
Wherever these trees meet our view, their 
doleful look excites melancholy ideas. Their 
tall pyramids, pointing to the sky, moan when 
shaken by the wind. The sun’s ray cannot 
penetrate through their gloom, and when his 
last beams throw their long shadows upon the 
ground, you would almost take them for dark 
phantoms. Sometimes the Cypress raises its 
head among the flowery tenants of our shrub- 
