CONIFER.'E. 217 



The passage above quoted is, however, a mere poetic amplification of the allusion 

 to the same fact by Apollouius Rhodius : 



a^iepfu\iov ce Xifup' lli'/nni'jio'i !jCc Ka'i avTij 



llijXta^ ia\i-v \fiyto f^TTttTTrep^oufTu Vi'eaOai 



cV "/«/> ot cojiv Octof vXijfiiiTOf TO fyji ava ^leaaiji' 



Argonaiitica, Book A. v. 62 1. 



The same stoiy too is ret'eiTcd to by Claudian : 



" Licet omnia vatcs 

 In majus colebrata ferant, ip-iainque secaudis 

 Argois trabibus jactcut sudasse Minervam ; 

 Nee nemoris tantum junxisse carentia sonsu 

 Robora, sed, ckso Tniarii Jovis augiire luco, 

 Arbore prajsaga tabulas iuiimasse loquaces." 



Be Bella Gatico, 1. II. 



This inooi-porating a portion of a sacred tree in the keel of Argo is precisely vhat 

 is now done with a new canoe in Burma, a piece of the Thit-myn or ' Prince of 

 trees,' being substituted for the mystical oak of Dodona, and the interesting question 

 rises (since we may be tolerably sure that the myth had no historical foundation 

 qiwad the building of the Argo), did the myth originate in a custom similar to that 

 now practised in Burma, but in those early days, perhaps, far more widely extended, 

 or did it originate in the highly coloured accounts of some such custom, which spread 

 to Greece from the distant region, lying beyond the Golden Chersonese ? Questions 

 such as these, so easy to ask, so impossible to answer, only prove the vast fund of 

 interesting materials bearing on the life history of our race, which has slipped and 

 is slipping almost irrecoverably from our grasp. 



Since writing the above I see that the custom exists in other parts of the world 

 besides Burma, in a modified form. Speaking of the Argonautic voyage, De Gubcrnatis 

 says : " L'aurore ou la dame vert du printemps, representee par Medee, la belle 

 raagicienne, et la soleil, represente par le jcune et beau Jason, se retrouvent dans 

 le ciel oriental, apres avoir voyage toutc la nuit, on tout I'hiver, dans un navire sur 

 Icquel la fille de Zeus, la sage deesso Athene, un form elle-meme plus elevee de 

 l'aurore, avait prudemraent place un copcau du chene de Dodonc, pour garantir les 

 Argonautes du naufrage. II est fort curieux maiutenant d'observer que la memo 

 superstition consacree par I'ancien mythe hcllenique existe encore, legerement 

 modifieo, dans la campagne de Roma et en Toscane ; seulement il no s'agit plus ici, 

 comme de raison, d'un orage de mer, d'un naufrage, mais d'un oragc terrestre."' — ■ 

 Mi/tIwlo(/ie des Plantes, vol. ii. p. 66. 



N. BEACTEATA, Bl. E.T. Trcc forests of Tenasserim and the Andamans. 



Thyt-myn (Kurz). 



Leaves scattered, 1 -nerved, linear to linear-lanceolate. Fruit the size of a largo 

 pea. Kurz describes the wood as pale brown, close-grained, w(dglit 60 lbs. 



I cannot here refrain from ((noting' tlie curious mediasval legend of the Cross, 

 wherein are incorporated the names of certain coniferous trees, which are known to 

 have possessed a mystical significance ages before the date when the legend was 

 conceived, and which, by a well-known process of purification, became transformed 

 from symbols of what we, from our higher spiritual standpoint, should term impurity 

 into the emblems of a Christian's faith. 



" When our first father was banished Paradise, he lived in penitence, striving 

 to recompense for the past by prayer aiul toil. When he reached a great age and 

 felt death approach, he snmmouecl Seth to his side, and said, ' Go, my son, to the 

 terrestrial Paradise, and ask the arclumgel who keeps the gate to give me a balsam 

 which will save me from death. You will easily find the way, because my footprints 



' Curious Myths of tliu Middle A^'es, by S. Bariug-Gould, p. 379. 



