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MOURNING. 
CYPRESS. 
The mournful cypress rises round 
Tapering from the burial ground. 
LUCAN. 
THE cypress is the universal emblem of 
mourning, and ig the funeral tree in the eastern 
world, from the Persian Gulf to the Caspian 
Sea; it is also dedicated to the dead, from 
Mazanderan to Constantinople, as well as to 
the utmost bounds of China’s fruitful shores. 
Ovid gives us a traditionary account of the 
mournful origin of the cypress tree, and we 
always find it devoted to mournful thoughts, 
or sad solemnities. Cyparissus, son of Tele- 
phus of Cea, was beloved by Apollo. Having 
killed the favourite stag of his friend, he grieved, 
pined, and, dying, was changed by Apollo inte 
a cypress tree. Calmet describes it to be a 
tall, straight tree, having bitter leaves. The 
shade and smell were said to be dangerous ; 
hence the Romans looked on it as a fatal tree, 
and made use of it at funerals, It is an ever- 
green ; the wood is heavy, of rather a fragrant 
smell,—is not liable to be attacked by insects, 
and does not speedily decay. Shakspeare says 
that cypress is the emblem of mourning; and 
we are told by Irving that, in Latium, on the 









