The Cypress (_Cupressus sempervirens_), originally a native of Mount Taurus, is found abundantly through all the South of Europe, and is said to derive its name from the Island of Cyprus. It was introduced into England many years before Shakespeare's time, but is always associated in the old authors with funerals and churchyards; so that Spenser calls it the "Cypress funereal," which epithet he may have taken from Pliny's description of the Cypress: "Natu morosa, fructu supervacua, baccis torva, foliis amara, odore violenta, ac ne umbrâ quidem gratiosa--Diti sacra, et ideo funebri signo ad domos posita" ("Nat. Hist.," xvi. 32). Sir John Mandeville mentions the Cypress in a very curious way: "The Cristene men, that dwellen beyond the See, in Grece, seyn that the tree of the Cros, that we callen Cypresse, was of that tree that Adam ete the Appule of; and that fynde thei writen" ("Voiage," &c., cap. 2). And the old poem of the "Squyr of lowe degre," gives the tree a sacred pre-eminence-- "The tre it was of Cypresse, The fyrst tre that Iesu chese." RITSON'S _Ear. Eng. Met. Romances_, viii. (31). "In the Arundel MS. 42 may be found an alphabet of plants. . . . The author mentions his garden 'by Stebenhythe by syde London,' and relates that he brought a bough of Cypress with its Apples from Bristol 'into Estbritzlond,' fresh in September, to show that it might be propagated by slips."--_Promptorium Parvulorum_, app. 67. The Cypress is an ornamental evergreen, but stiff in its growth till it becomes of a good age; and for garden purposes the European plant is becoming replaced by the richer forms from Asia and North America, such as C. Lawsoniana, macrocarpa, Lambertiana, and others. FOOTNOTES: [71:1] Cypress, or Cyprus (for the word is spelt differently in the different editions), is also mentioned by Shakespeare in the following-- (1) _Clown._ In sad Cypress let me be laid. _Twelfth Night_, act ii, sc. 4. (2) _Olivia._ To one of your receiving Enough is shown; and Cyprus, not a bosom, Hides my poor heart. _Ibid._, act iii, sc. 1. (3) _Autolycus._ Lawn as white as driven snow, Cyprus, black as e'er was crow. _Winter's Tale_, act iv, sc. 3. But in all these cases the Cypress is not the name of the plant, but is the fabric which we now call crape, the "sable stole of Cypre's lawn" of Milton's "Penseroso." DAFFODILS.[73:1] (1) _Autolycus._ When Daffodils begin to peer, With heigh! the doxy o'er the dale, Why, then comes in the sweet o' the year. _Winter's Tale_, act iv, sc. 3 (1). (2) _Perdita._ Daffodils That come before the swallow dares, and take The winds of March with beauty.