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The common European evergreen Cypress 
is a very long-lived tree, and attains to a great 
size. According to Pliny, there were Cypress 
trees growing in his time at Rome, which were 
more ancient than the city itself. Bartholdy 
makes mention of one at Misitra, which was 
thirty feet in circumference. The American 
species, one of the largest trees in the United 
States, is sometimes found of the same girth, 
and seventy feet high: its branches extend 
almost horizontally. 
The wood of the Cypress is remarkable for 
its durability. Many of the chests containing 
the Egyptian mummies are of this material, 
affording a decisive proof of its almost imperish- 
able nature. We are further assured that the 
gates of St. Paul’s Church at Rome, made of 
Cypress wood, which had lasted from the time 
of Constantine, eleven hundred years, were as 
fresh as new when Pope Eugenius IV. ordered 
gates of brass to be erected in their stead. 

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