Now PI in-bus thus: — > Ah! youth, beloved in vain, 
Long shall thy boughs the gloom 1 feel retain; 
Henceforth, when mounters grieve, their grief to share. 
Emblem of woe, the cypress shall be there.’ " 
This character it has always retained. Virgil mentions 
it thus:— 
“ Come, shepherds, come, and strew with leaves the plain. 
Such funeral rites your Daphtiis did ordain: 
With cypress boughs the crystal fountains hide, 
And softly let the running waters glide.” 
And in another place he speaks of 
fun’ral cypress rising like a shroud.’* 
Notwithstanding, however, its gloomy character, 
Homer plants it near the cave of Calypso, on account of 
its fragrance: — 
“ Poplars and alders ever quivering play’d, 
And nodding cypress form’d a fragrant shade.” 
Why the shafts of Cupid should have been made of 
this tree, as some writers report, it is difficult to deter¬ 
mine ; it might be, because then, as now, 
the course of true love never did run smooth.” 
