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I MTRODUCTION. XV exceeds twenty feet in height, with a maximum circumference of two feet ; this is a totally different wood, and is intensely hard, while the former is easily worked, but durable. The derivation of the name Cyprus has been sought for from many sources ; and the opinions of the authorities differ. English people may reflect that they alone spell and pronounce the word as "Cyprus. " The name of the cypress-tree, which at one time clothed the mountains of this formerly verdant island, is pronounced by the inhabitants " Kypresses, " which approximates closely to the various appellations of Cyprus in different languages. The Greek name is Kypros, and it is probable that as in ancient days the " chittim-wood " was so called from the fact of its export from Chittim, the same link may remain unbroken between Kypros and the tree Kypresses. The geographical advantages which I have enumerated are sufficient to explain the series of struggles for possession to which the island has been exposed throughout its history ; the tombs that have been examined, have revealed the secrets of the dead, and in the relics of Phoenicians, Persians, Assyrians, Egyptians, and the long list of foreign victors, we discover proofs of the important past, until we at length tread upon pre-historical vestiges, and become lost in a labyrinth of legends. From the. researches of undoubted authorities, we know

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