LEGENDS OF TREES. 



infernal regions, he also returned with a wreath of White Poplar round his head. 

 It was this, says the fable, that made the leaves of the color they are now. The 

 perspiration from the hero's brow made the inner part of the leaf white ; while 

 the smoke of the lower region turned the upper surface of the leaves almost black. 

 Persons sacrificing to Hercules, were always crowned with branches of this tree ; 

 and all who had gloriously conquered their enemies in battle, wore garlands of it, 

 in imitation of Hercules. It is said that the ancients consecrated the White Poplar 

 to Time, because the leaves are in continual agitation ; and being of a blackish- 

 green on one side, with a thick white cotton on the other, these were supposed 

 to indicate the alternation of day and night. 



" The Black Poplar is no less celebrated in fable than its congener above- 

 mentioned. According to Ovid, when Phaeton borrowed the chariot and horses 

 of the sun, and, by his heedless driving, set half the world on fire, he was hurled 

 from the chariot by Jupiter, into the Po, where he was drowned ; and his sisters 

 — the Heliades — wandering on the banks of the river, were changed into trees — 

 supposed, by most commentators, to be Poplars. The evidence in favor of the 

 poplar, consists in there being abundance of Black Poplars on the banks of the 

 Po ; in the Poplar, in common with many other aquatic trees, being so surcharged 

 with moisture as to have it exuding through the pores of the leaves, which may 

 thus literally be said to weep ; and in there being no tree on which the sun shines 

 more brightly than on the Black Poplar, thus still showing gleams of parental 

 affection to the only memorial left of the unhappy son whom his own fondness had 

 contributed to destroy. 



" The Apple-tree, so singularly connected with the first transgression and fall of 

 man, is distinguished alike in the mythologies of the Greeks, Scandinavians, and 

 Druids. The golden fruits of the Hesperides, which it was one of the labors of Her- 

 cules to procure, in spite of the sleepless dragon which guarded them, were believed 

 by the pagans to be apples. Hercules was worshipped by the Thebans under the 

 name of Melius, and apples were offered at his altars. The origin of this custom was 

 the circumstance of the River Asopus having, on one occasion, overflowed its banks 

 to such an extent as to render it impossible to bring a sheep across it which was to 

 be sacrificed to Hercules, when some youths, recollecting that an apple bore the 

 same name as a sheep in Greek (melon), offered an apple, with four little sticks stuck 

 in it, to resemble legs, as a substitute for sheep ; and after that period, the pagans 

 always considered the apple as especially devoted to Hercules. In the Scandinavian 

 Edda, we are told that the goddess Iduna had the care of apples which had the 

 power of conferring immortality, and which were consequently reserved for the 

 gods, who ate of them when they began to feel themselves growing old. The 

 evil spirit, Loke, took away Iduna and her apple-tree, and hid them in a forest, 

 where they could not be found by the gods. In consequence of this malicious 

 theft, everything went wrong in the world. The gods became old and infirm, 

 and, enfeebled both in body and in mind, no longer paid the same attention to the 

 affairs of the earth ; and men, having no one to look after them, fell into evil 

 courses, and became the prey of the evil spirit. At length, the gods, finding 

 matters getting worse and worse every day, roused their last remains of vigor, 

 and combining together, forced Loke to restore the tree. 



" The Druids paid particular reverence to the apple-tree, because the mistletoe 

 was supposed to grow only on it and the oak, and, also, on account of the useful- 

 ness of its fruit. In consequence of this feeling, the apple was cultivated iu 

 Britain from the earliest ages of which we have any record ; and Glastonbury 

 was called the apple-orchard, from the quantity of apples grown there prev 

 to the time of the Romans. Many old rites and ceremonies are therefore conn 



