out of Candy: And certainly,
a very gainful commodity it was, when the fell of a _cupressetum_, was
heretofore reputed a good daughters portion, and the plantation it self
call'd _dos filiae_. But there was in Candy a vast wood of these trees,
belonging to the Republique, by malice, or accident (or perhaps by solar
heat, as were many woods 74 years after, even here in England) set on
fire, which _anno_ 1400, burning for seven years continually, before it
could be quite extinguish'd, fed so long a space by the unctuous nature
of the timber, of which there were to be seen at Venice planks of above
four foot in breadth; and formerly the valves of St. Peter's church at
Rome, were fram'd of this material, which lasted from the great
Constantine, to Pope Eugenius the Fourth's time, eleven hundred years;
and then were found as fresh, and entire as if they had been new: But
this Pope would needs change them for gates of brass, which were cast by
the famous Antonio Philarete; not in my opinion so venerable, as those
of cypress. It was in coffins of this material, that Thucydides tells
us, the Athenians us'd to bury their heroes, and the mummy-chests
brought with those condited bodies out of Egypt, are many of them of
this material, which 'tis probable may have lain in those dry, and sandy
_crypta_, many thousand years.

15. The timber of this wood was of infinite esteem with the Ancients:
That lasting bridge built over the Euphrates by Semiramis, was made of
this material; and it is reported, Plato chose it to write his laws in,
before brass it self, for the diuturnity of the matter: It is certain,
that it never rifts or cleaves, but with great violence; and the
bitterness of its juice, preserves it from all worms and putrifaction.
To this day those of Crete and Malta make use of it for their buildings;
because they have it in plenty, and there is nothing out-lasts it, or
can be more beautiful, especially, than the root of the wilder sort,
incomparable for its crisped undulations. Divers learned persons have
conceiv'd the gopher mention'd in Holy Writ, _Gen._ 6. 14. (and of which
the Ark was built) to have been no other than this +Kyparissos+,
_cupar_, or _cuper_, by the easie mutation of letters; Aben Ezra names
it a light wood apt to swim; so does David Kimchi; which rather seems to
agree with fir or pine, and such as the Greeks call +xyla tetragona+
quadrangular trees, about which criticks have made a deal of stir: But
Isa.