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Cupressus.

The Cypress

EMBLEMA CXCIX.

A tree with scales at the foot and crates with leaves coming out on either side.
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Indicat effigies metae, nomenque Cupressi,
Tractandos parili conditione suos.[1]
ALIUD.
Funesta est arbor, procerum monumenta Cupressus,
Quale apium plebis, comere fronde solet.[2]
ALIUD.
Pulchra coma est, pulchro digestaeque ordine frondes;
Sed fructus nullos haec coma pulchra gerit.[3]

The cone-shaped form and the name ‘cypress’ indicate that one’s people should be dealt with on equal terms.
Other.
The cypress is a funereal tree. Its branches usually adorn the memorials of leading men as parsley-stems adorn those of humble people.
Other.
The foliage is beautiful, and the leaves all arranged in neat order, but this beautiful foliage bears no fruit.

Notes:

1.  This refers to the supposed etymology, Greek κύειν and πάρισος ‘bear’,‘equal’.

2.  See Pliny, Natural History, 20.44.113 for the use of parsley at funeral meals.

3.  See Erasmus, Adagia, 4210 (Cyparissi fructus).

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Quercus.

The Oak

EMBLEMA CC.

An oak tree with the image of a man’s head on one side and the inscription, EX.S.C. P.P. OBCIVES SERVATOS within a wreath on the other.
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Grata Iovi est quercus, qui nos servatque fovetque:
Servanti civem querna corona datur.[1]
Aliud.
Glande aluit veteres,[2] sola nunc proficit umbra:
Sic quoque sic arbor officiosa Iovis.

The oak is pleasing to Jove who preserves and cherishes us. A crown of oak is given to one who preserves a fellow-citizen.
Other.
The oak fed men of old with its acorns. Now it benefits us only with its shade. In this way too the tree of Jove does us service.

Notes:

1.  ‘a crown of oak’, awarded for saving the life of a fellow-soldier; see Pliny, Natural History, 16.3.7.

2.  For the ancient belief that early man fed on acorns see e.g. Lucretius, De Rerum natura, 5.939; Vergil, Georgics, 1.7; Ovid, Metamorphoses, 1.106.

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