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ARBORETUM AND FRUTICETUM.

PART III.

Varro galbulus, is from 1 in. to 1J in. in diameter, sessile, and generally pro-duced in pairs, on the sides or at the extremities of the branches ; it ripensduring the winter, and opens with the first warmth of spring. The cone iscomposed of large, angular, corky scales, slightly convex on the outside,streaked in rays, and mucronate in the centre; becoming woody and se-parating when ripe ; on the inside, ending in a thick angular peduncle, to theextremity of which adhere 4 little nuts, which are bony, obovate, compressed,or irregularly angular, and covered with a thin membranaceous skin of a duncolour. The seed is of a bay colour, and of a linear-oblong shape. Thewood is hard, fragrant, and of a remarkably fine close grain, very durable, andof a beautiful reddish hue, which Pliny says it never loses. Du Hamel saysthat he has observed on the bark of young cypresses small particles of a sub-stance resembling gum tragacanth, and that he has seen bees taking great painsto detach these particles, probably to supply the glutinous matter used bythem in forming their comhs. The rate of growth, in the climate of London,will average, for the first 8 or 10 years, from 1 ft. to 1 ft. 6 in. a year; afterwhich the tree grows more slowly; and, when it has attained its full size, andis between 30 ft. and 40 ft. high, it will live many years without any percept-ible increase in dimensions. The largest, and probably also the oldest, ever-green cypresses in the environs of London, are at Syon, where there is onetree (probably one of those planted there by Dr. Turner, in the reign ofHenry VIII.) upwards of 52 ft. high. A tree, probably contemporary withthis, is now in ruins in the park at Ditton, near Windsor, said to have beenplanted by Cardinal Wolsey. The trunk is 8 ft. in circumference;but the head and branches are in astate of great decay. Thereare some very fine specimens at Croome, of two of whichfigs. 2321. and 2322. are portraits, kindly presented tous by Miss Radcliffe of Worcester. Fig. 2321. is aportrait of C. s. horizontalis, which, in 1836, afterbeing 30 years planted, was 65 ft. high; and fig. 2322.is a portrait of one of several trees of C. s. stricta,which, after being 40 years planted, was 35 ft. high.

The largest, the oldest, and, doubtless, the most cele-brated evergreen cypress in the world, is that at Soma, in Lom-bardy, which has been already noticed in p. 169., and of which a2321 portrait and the history will be given in a future page.

Geography. The common evergreen cypress is a native of the islands ofthe Archipelago; particularly Candia (the ancient Crete) and Cyprus. Itis also a native of Greece and Turkey, and of Persia and Asia Minor.It is found apparently wild in Italy; but Pliny tells us that it was introducedinto that country from Greece, and first planted there in the environs of Ta-rentum. Desfontaines states that he has seen it growing on Mount Atlas,and in some of the gardens at Algiers. It was found in great abundance onMount Ida, and also, as is mentioned in the Bible, on Mount Sion. Itflourishes in various soils and surfaces, from moist bottoms to dry rocky preci-pices ; but it is always found of largest size in soils which are deep and sandy,rather dry than moist, somewhat sheltered, and at no great elevation abovethe level of the sea.

History. The upright cypress is mentioned in Holy Writ, in the Book ofEcclesiasticus : —“I am exalted like the cedar in Lebanon, and like a cypresson Mount Sion.” The gopher wood, of which the ark was made, is also sup-posed by some to be cypress. This tree w'as known both to the Greeks andRomans. Herodotus tells us that the Egyptians made their mummy-casesof the wood. Theophrastus states that it grew naturally in the Isle of Crete,on the mountains covered with snow {Hist., lib. iv. c. L); and that it wouldnot thrive in situations that were too warm. He adds that those who wishto have the cypress flourish, must procure a little of the earth of the Isle ofCyprus for it to grow in. (Lib. v. c. 2.) Thucydides says that the Greekswho died for their country had their ashes preserved in cypress. According

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