42 FLORA OF THE 



The origin of sacredness in the different trees may 

 have been various ; either some wise person, saint, or 

 god may have Hved under the tree ; or sacrifices may 

 have been performed there ; or meetings held under 

 it ; or it may have been a very useful plant to the 

 community ; or because, like the Deodar, it grew up 

 in the clouds — in heaven — and so forth. Then the 

 imagination of wise men and the superstitions of the 

 people would have soon created round it a " halo of 

 luck;" or, owing to its usefulness, it would be con- 

 sidered a thing upon which their life or their comfort 

 depended. 



I believe that it was mainly the usefulness of a tree 

 that made those people look upon it as a thing to 

 be revered. 



In the ' Migration des Symboles,' the author says, at 

 p. i6i, that the sacred tree, as it migrated from country 

 to country, was changed into the tree which in the 

 estimation of the people was the most precious ; " so 

 we see figuring turn by turn as the sacred tree the 

 date-palm in Chaldea, the vine or the fir tree in 

 Assyria, the lotus in Phoenicia, the fig in India." 



And in a note he quotes M. Didron,i who remarks 



that every Christian people has chosen for its tree of 



temptation the one it preferred — the fig and orange 



in Greece, the vine in Burgundy and Champagne, the 



1 'Manuel d'iconographie Chretienne.' 



