<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<Entity parent="template_gaia_flora_tree">
  <Identity>
    <SpecificName>Cypress Tree</SpecificName>
    <History>Pliny narrates several remarkable, but not incredible, instances of the durability of Cypress-wood. He says that there were in his time Cypresses still standing at Rome which were more ancient than the city itself; but that the tree was not a native of Italy, having been originally introduced from Greece to the Greek colony of Tarentum; whence, indeed, Cato, in his work on "Rural Economy," recommends that its seed should be procured. The doors of the temple of Diana, at Ephesus, were, Pliny relates, of Cypress-wood, and appeared quite new when four centuries old; as did also the statue of Jupiter in the Capitol, which was of the same material and half as old again. The tree in his time was employed for rafters, joists, and especially for vine-props, so that a Cypress grove was thought a valuable dowry for a daughter.</History>
    <Icon>gaia/flora_tree_cypress.png</Icon>
  </Identity>
  <VisualActor>
    <Actor>flora/trees/mediterranean_cypress.xml</Actor>
  </VisualActor>
</Entity>
