the cypress-tree; a genus of the monodelphia order, belonging to the monocotyledons of plants. There are six species; the most remarkable are the following: 1. The sempervirens, with an upright straight stem, closely branching all around, almost from the bottom upwards, into numerous quadrangular branches; rising in the different varieties from 15 to 40 or 50 feet in height, and very closely garnished with small, narrow, erect evergreen leaves, placed imbricated; and flowers and fruit from the sides of the branches. 2. The thyoides, or evergreen American cypress, commonly called white cedar, hath an upright stem, branching out into numerous two-edged branches, rising 20 or 30 feet high, ornamented with flat ever-green leaves imbricated like arbor vitae, and small blue cones the size of juniper-berries. 3. The disticha, or deciduous American cypress, hath an erect trunk, retaining a large bulk, branching wide and regular; grows 50 or 60 feet high, fully garnished with small, spreading deciduous leaves, arranged distichous, or along two sides of the branches. All these species are raised from seeds, and will sometimes also grow from cuttings; but those raised from seeds prove the handsomest plants. The seeds are procured in their cones from the seedmen, and by exposing them to a moderate heat, they readily open, and discharge the seeds freely. The season for sowing them is any time in March; and they grow freely on a bed or border of common light earth; especially the first and third species. The ground must then be dug, well broken, and raked smooth, then drawing an inch of earth evenly from off the surface into the alley, sow the seeds moderately thick, and directly sift the earth over them, half an inch deep. If in April and May the weather proves warm and dry, a very moderate watering will now and then be necessary, and the plants will rise in six or eight weeks. During the summer they must be kept clear from weeds, and in dry weather they must be gently watered twice a week. In winter they must be occasionally sheltered with mats in the time of hard frost. In two years they will be fit for transplanting from the seed-bed, when they may be set in nursery-rows two feet alunder; and in three or four years they will be fit for the shrubbery.

The wood of the first species is said to resist worms, moths, and putrefaction, and to last many centuries. The coffins in which the Athenians were wont to bury their heroes were made, says Thucydides, of this wood; as were likewise the chests containing the Egyptian mummies. The doors of St Peter's church at Rome were originally of the same materials. These, after lasting upwards of 600 years, at the end of which they did not discover the smallest tendency to corruption, were removed by order of pope Eugenius IV. and gates of brass substituted in their place. The same tree is by many eminent authors recommended as improving and meliorating the air by its balsamic and aromatic exhalations; upon which account many ancient physicians of the eastern countries used to send their patients who were troubled with weak lungs to the island of Candia, where these trees grew in great abundance; and where, from the salutary air alone, very few failed of a perfect cure. In the same island, says Miller, the cypresses trees were so lucrative a commodity, that the plantations were called dox filia; the felling of one of them being reckoned a daughter's portion. Cypress, says Mr Pococke, is the only tree that grows towards the top of mount Lebanon, and being nipped by the cold, grows like a small oak. Noah's ark is commonly supposed to have been made of this kind of wood.