the Cypress Tree, a genus of plants belonging to the conocia class; and in the natural method ranking under the 51st order, Coniferae. See Botany Index.

The wood of the sempervirens, or evergreen cypress, 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 grow in great abundance; and where, from the salubrious air alone, very few failed of a perfect cure. In the same island, says Miller, the cypres-trees were so lucrative a commodity, that the plantations were called dos filiae; the felling of them being reckoned a daughter's portion. Cypres, 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.