Its
frond-like branches are closely covered with very small sharp-pointed
leaves of a yellow-green color, smooth and shining, and they remain on
the tree five or six years. The cypress is often seen in burying-grounds
in Europe, and in Turkey it often stands at each end of a grave. The
oldest tree in Europe is thought to be an Italian cypress said to have
been planted in the year of our Saviour's birth; it is an object of
great reverence in the neighborhood. This ancient tree is a hundred and
twenty feet high and twenty-three feet around the trunk.
"The juniper--or red cedar, as it is improperly called--is not a
handsome tree, but it is a very useful one. It has a scraggy, stunted
look, and the foliage is apt to be rusty; but it will grow in rocky,
sandy places where no other tree would even try to hold up its head, and
the wood, when made into timber, lasts for a great many years. Posts for
fences are made of the juniper or red cedar, and the shipbuilder,
boatbuilder, carpenter, cabinet-maker and turner are all steady
customers for it. The 'cedar-apples' found on this tree are one phase
of the life of a very curious fungus. They are covered with a
reddish-brown bark; and when fresh, they are tough and fleshy, somewhat
like an unripe apple. When dry they become of a woody nature."
"They pucker up your mouth awfully," said Malcolm, who had made several
attempts to eat them; but, do what he would, he could not even "make
believe" they were nice.
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