1883.] TBEE MYTHS. 131 



forestry to be held in Edinburgh next season is certainly an indication 

 of a desire for the further development of knowledge in this particular, 

 and I am very pleased to learn that our beloved Queen (long may she 

 live) has consented to be a patron of that exhibition. With a Prime 

 Minister wielding the axe as the practical forester, her most gracious 

 Majesty patronising an exhibition to forward the interests of forestry, 

 and two eminent Members of Parliament using every endeavour in 

 the House of Commons and out of it to indetinitely extend the field 

 of operations, I think we ought to take encouragement and see that 

 we lose no opportunity of developing and furthering the general 

 interest and bearing of forestry, and in doing so we shall add to the 

 material resources and wealth of our beloved country, and confer a 

 lasting and permanent good upon our fellow-men at large. 



TBEE MYTHS. 



,HE ancients (De Gubernatis tells us*), called the Elm the ' Tree 

 of Dreams,' Ulmus sommiorum. Virgil says : — 



' In medio ramos annosaque brachia pandit 

 Ulmus opaca, uigeus, quam sedem somnium vulgo 

 Vana tenere ferunt, foliisque snb omnibus Xterent.' 



It was probably with a recollection of these lines that Petrarch, 

 in an unedited sonnet, associates the Elm with the abode of sleep : — 



' Un olmo v'e cte'n fronde sogni piove 

 Da ciascun canto, e che confusamente 

 Di vero e di menzogna altrui ricopre.'t 



A recent French satirist has adopted the same idea of the dream- 

 producing powers of the tree : — 



' Aujourd'hui, 

 Celui qui somniellait sous I'orme 

 En revant les plus beaux reves . . .' 



Chant de Depart de Gambetta. 



Like the Oak, the Elm is thus in some sort a prophetic tree. 

 Pliny employs it to symbolize the prosperity and majesty of the 

 Eoman people : — 



' Factum hoc populi romani Quiritibus ostentum Cimbricis bellisnucerise in 

 loco Junonis, ulmo, postquam cacumen amputatum erat, quoniam in aram 

 ipsam procumbebat, lestituta sponte ita ut protinus floreret ; a quo deinde 

 tempor majestas populi romani resurrexit, quae ante vastata cladibus fuerat.' — 

 xvi. 57. 



The ancients also regarded the Elm as a funereal tree, it is said, 



* Za Mythologie des Planies, vol. 2, 1882. 



t First pubUshed by Domenico Carbone, at Turin, in 1874. 



